Landscape Near Ornans

Artist Gustave Courbet (French, 1819-1877)

Place of OriginOrnans, France

Date1864

DimensionsWork: H: 35 in. (88.8 cm); W: 50 1/8 in. (127.2 cm)
Frame: H: 44 1/2 in. (113 cm); W: 58 3/4 in. (149.2 cm); D: 3 3/4 in. (9.5 cm)

MediumOil on canvas

ClassificationPaintings

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1964.59

On View

Toledo Museum of Art (2445 Monroe Street), Gallery, 33

Label Text“To paint a land you have to know it. I know my land and I paint it. That undergrowth—it comes from our land. That river—it’s the Loue…Those rocks, those are in Ornans…Go look, you’ll recognize all my paintings.” --Gustave Courbet Gustave Courbet painted the jagged rock formations and rugged ravines around Ornans, France, with a drama befitting the terrain. Quick flicks of the brush created the foliage of the trees and shrubs, but he used a palette knife to sculpt the stark limestone cliffs with thick white paint. Ornans, not far from the Swiss border, was Courbet’s native town, and he wandered through its surrounding lush valleys with his easel and paints, creating compelling images of nature. In contrast to his softer (though no less vibrant) painting The Trellis, also in the Museum’s collection, Courbet’s Landscape Near Ornans seems elemental in its forcefulness.Published References"Treasures for Toledo," Toledo Museum of Art Museum News, vol. 7, no. 4, Winter 1964, repr. p. 103 (also published as a handbook).

Wittmann, Otto, "Treasures for Toledo, Ohio," Apollo, vol. LXXXI, no. 35, January 1965, pp. 28-35, repr. p. 35.

"New Accessions, U.S.A.," Gazette des Beaux-Arts, vol. 65, no. 1153, February 1965, no. 229, p. 57, repr.

"Accessions of American and Canadian Museums," Art Quarterly, vol. 30, no. 2, Summer 1967, p. 161, repr. p. 168.

Spaeth, Eloise, American Art Museums, New York, rev. ed., p. 205.

Toledo Museum of Art, The Toledo Museum of Art, European Paintings, Toledo, 1976, p. 43, pl. 219.

Fernier, Robert, La vie et l'oeuvre de Gustave Courbet, Catalogue raisonné, vol. 1, Lausanne, 1977, no. 412, p. 226, repr.

Morse, John D., Old Master Paintings in North America, New York, 1979, p. 72.

Courthion, Pierre, L'Opera completa di Courbet, Milan, 1985, p. 94, no. 390, repr.

Kelly, Simon and April M. Watson, Impressionist France: Visions of Nation from Le Gray to Monet, St. Louis, St. Louis Museum of Art, 2013, no. 101, p. 264, repr. (col.) p. 265.

Exhibition HistoryBrooklyn Museum; Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Courbet Reconsidered, 1988-1989, no. 45, p. 152, repr. (col.).

Brooklyn Museum of Art, 1983.

Los Angeles, The J.Paul Getty Museum; Houston, The Museum of Fine Arts; Baltimore, The Walters Art Museum, Courbet and the Modern Landscape, 2006-2007, no. 2, pp. 55-56, repr. p. (col.).

Kansas City, MO, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art; Saint Louis Art Museum, Impressionist France: Visions of Nation from Le Gray to Monet, October 19, 2013 - July 6, 2014.

Toledo Museum of Art, From the Collection: 300 Years of French Landscape Painting, Jul. 17-Oct. 11, 2015.