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.

COURBETORIAL
The Courbetorial is the digital companion to the exhibition I, Gustave Courbet. Painter and Rebel, on view at Museum Folkwang from 17 July to 8 November 2026 and developed in collaboration with the Leopold Museum. It offers in-depth insights into Gustave Courbet’s life, work and legacy, inviting visitors to explore key themes of the exhibition individually – from his radical visual language to his engagement with art, society and politics. For this purpose, Raphael Westermeier recorded literary texts by Charles Baudelaire, Lord Byron and Marie Luise Kaschnitz that relate to the exhibition. The Courbetorial was created using Google Arts & Culture.

TO THE DIGITAL EXHIBITION

Main sponsor
 

Funded by
 

Supported by
 

In cooperation with 

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