Letters of Gustave Courbet by Gustave Courbet, Petra ten-Doesschate Chu (Translator)

From the Publisher

The French Realist painter Gustave Courbet (1819-77), a
pivotal figure in the emergence of modern painting, remains
an artist whose interests, attitudes, and friendships are
little understood. A voluminous correspondent, Courbet
himself, through his letters, offers a tantalizing avenue
toward a keener assessment of his character and
accomplishments. In her critical edition of over six hundred
of the artist's letters, Petra ten-Doesschate Chu presents
just such a look at the inner life of the artist; her
unparalleled feat of gathering together all of Courbet's
known letters, many heretofore unpublished and untranslated,
is sure to change our evaluation of Courbet's creativity and
of his place in nineteenth-century French life.
Beginning when Courbet left his provincial home at
eighteen and ending eight days before his death in exile in
Switzerland, this correspondence enables readers to follow
the artist's development from youth to mature artist of
international repute. Addressed to correspondents such as
the poet Charles Baudelaire, the painter Claude Monet, the
writers Champfleury, Victor Hugo, and Théeophile Gautier,
the political theorist Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, and the
politician Jules Simon, the letters offer numerous insights
into Courbet's life and art as well as the cultural and
political activity of his day. In fascinating detail, they
present the artist's relation to the contemporary media, his
deliberate choice of subject matter for Salon paintings, his
preoccupation with photography, and his participation in the
Commune.

Besides collecting, translating,and annotating the
letters, Chu provides an introduction, a chronology,
biographies of persons appearing frequently in the letters,
and a list of paintings and sculptures mentioned in the
letters. Her work is an essential resource of immediate use
to historians of art and culture, political and social
historians, and readers of biography.

Petra ten-Doesschate Chu is professor and head of the
Department of Art and Music at Seton Hall University.

Publishers Weekly

Containing all of Gustave Courbet's (1819-1877) known letters--more than 600--this massive volume explodes the notion of the artist as a naive provincial, an image he himself constructed and carefully nurtured. Full of pithy remarks, colorful descriptions and cultural allusions, the correspondence reveals the French realist painter as an ambitious self-promoter who craved material success and was keenly aware of the artist's precarious status in a market-driven economy. Among Courbet's correspondents were Baudelaire, Monet, Hugo and anarchist Pierre-Joseph Proudhon. Reflecting his development from spoiled teenager to symbol of political resistance, these energetic, offhand letters express Courbet's defiance of authority in all forms, his hatred of imperialism, his tweaking of the art establishment, participation in the Paris Commune, tragic decline and his death in exile in Switzerland. Chu, an art history professor at Seton Hall University in New Jersey, accompanies the letters with 40 halftones. (Mar.)

Booknews

The French Realist painter Gustave Courbet (1819-1877), a pivotal figure in the emergence of modern painting, remains an artist whose interests, attitudes, and friendships are little understood--but a little better than before thanks to translator-editor Petra ten- Doesschate Chu's critical edition of all of Courbet's known letters (over 600, many previously unpublished and untranslated), beginning when he left his provincial home at 18, and ending eight days before his death in exile in Switzerland. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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