Gustave Courbet

Born into a wealthy farmer's family, Courbet began his training in 1831 at the Petit Séminaire in Ornans where, beginning in 1833, he studied under "le père Baud," who had been a pupil of Gros (q.v.). He was befriended by poet Max Buchon, who would later write the first article on Courbet, claiming that he was the artist for the people. In 1837, hoping that Gustave would become a lawyer, his father sent him to the Collège Royal in Besançon. Despite his father's ambitions, Courbet began to study art at the academy there with Charles-Antoine Flageoulot (1774-1840), a former student of David...