“Landscape with a Dead Horse”, Gustave Courbet – description of the painting

Description of the picture:

Landscape with a dead horse – Gustav Courbet. The second half of the 1850s. Canvas, oil. Forty five x 56

Gustave Courbet is an outstanding French artist, the founder of realism. In the Hermitage, among his other works, stands out Landscape with a Dead Horse. Courbet said that painting should show those things that the master saw or touched them.

The plot of the picture is mysterious: in the center of the composition on the side of the road in the middle of the thicket carcass of a dead white horse. The figure of a man who escapes into the depths of the forest is hardly distinguishable. For the viewer, what happened remains a mystery: was the animal killed or did the person have nothing to do with it, but is it just a witness to the accident? Contemporaries noted the courage with which Courbet showed the horse, not at all afraid to shock the audience. The master firmly decided to reflect the truth of life, no matter how unsightly it may be.

If you mentally remove the figures of a horse and a man, the landscape background in the presented work will not be lost, but, on the contrary, will be captivated by a combination of warm green shades."