I, GUSTAVE COURBET

Gustave Courbet’s radical visual language, his sociopolitical aspirations and his influence on modern art remain as powerful today as ever. He rejected the idealised aesthetics of classicism and romanticism, making the lives of ordinary people and reality the subject of his paintings instead. With his uncompromising attitude and innovative painting technique, Courbet is considered a pioneer of modernism – a boundary breaker between art, society and politics. This major retrospective is dedicated to one of the most influential artists of the 19th century, an artistic innovator with a colourful personality who was driven by the pursuit of independence. His political commitment is reflected in his art, especially in his examination of historical events and upheavals in France, which led him to leave Paris in 1873 as a political refugee and flee to Switzerland. The exhibition highlights key stages in the artist’s life and groups of works: 
self-image and public image, social reality, erotic representation, landscape and exile.

Main sponsor: E.ON

In cooperation with Leopold Museum Vienna

Under the High Patronage of Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Emmanuel Macron, President of the French Republic and the Honorary Patronage of Alexander Van der Bellen, Federal President of the Republic of Austria