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A shallow stream emerges from a dense forest

At right, a tall light gray rocky outcropping stands at the edge of a shallow, rocky stream that comes into view at center and flows to the lower left. Beyond the rock at right is dark green leafy undergrowth, and a canopy of tree branches that arch over the brook as it winds back into the woods. At middle left, smaller trees grow on a rocky slope, revealing only a glimpse of blue sky and white clouds at upper left. Narrow rays of sunshine slant in through trees from the right.

Gallery Text

Courbet visited the famous grotto near his native Ornans called Le puits noir, or The Black Well, numerous times to paint this stream covered by dense foliage. His return to this motif was inspired in part by its commercial success; in a letter of 1866, he boasted about the large sum he had received for twelve paintings of the site. Despite the humorous myth that he rode his donkey named Gérôme into the gorge and painted outdoors, landscapes such as this one were completed in his studio. The surface is methodically built up in layers, the paint applied thickly with the palette knife and repeatedly scraped back to the dark ground underneath. While some contemporary critics attributed Courbet’s realism to the innovations of the Barbizon school, his landscapes’ lack of atmospheric perspective or a single light source, as well as their palpable painterliness, stand in stark opposition to works by artists such as Corot.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1943.221
People
Gustave Courbet, French (Ornans, France 1819 - 1877 La Tour-de-Peilzy, near Vevey, Switzerland)
Title
A Brook at Le puits noir, near Ornans
Other Titles
Original Language Title: Le Puits Noir
Classification
Paintings
Work Type
painting
Date
c. 1864
Culture
French
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/230055

Location

Location
Level 2, Room 2100, European and American Art, 17th–19th century, Centuries of Tradition, Changing Times: Art for an Uncertain Age
View this object's location on our interactive map

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
55 x 89 cm (21 5/8 x 35 1/16 in.)
framed: 79.4 x 113 x 8.9 cm (31 1/4 x 44 1/2 x 3 1/2 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • Signed: l.r.: G. Courbet

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Sold, [through Courbet Sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 1881]. M. Chevalier, 1881, sold (no. 16 as Source de la Loue); to [Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 1883], sold; possibly to [Knoedler & Co., New York]. [Knoedler & Co., New York], sold; to Josef Stransky, New York, 1919, sold; to Grenville L. Winthrop, New York, NY, 1926, bequest; to Fogg Art Museum, 1943.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Bequest of Grenville L. Winthrop
Accession Year
1943
Object Number
1943.221
Division
European and American Art
Contact
am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
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Publication History

  • Loan Exhibition of the Works of Gustave Courbet, exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, NY, 1919), no. 18, repr.
  • Charles Léger, Courbet, Les Editions G. Crès & Cie. (Paris, France, 1929), listed p. 216 in Appendice I, list of Courbet ptgs from Hotel Drouot sale 1881
  • Chinese Sculpture, Bronzes, Jades, Paintings and Drawings, Egyptian and Persian sculpture, Pre-Columbian art; selected from the collection of Grenville Lindall Winthrop, exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, MA, 1943), p. 7
  • Pierre Courthion, L'Opera Completa di Courbet, Rizzoli Editore (Milan, Italy, 1985)
  • Anik Morrow, "Gustave Courbet: Materials, Techniques, and Problems with the Attribution of the Painting Entitled The Mill" (thesis (certificate in conservation), Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies, 1989), Unpublished, passim
  • Edgar Peters Bowron, European Paintings Before 1900 in the Fogg Art Museum: A Summary Catalogue including Paintings in the Busch-Reisinger Museum, Harvard University Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 1990), p. 103; repr. as no. 339
  • Eric M. Rosenberg and Miriam Stewart, The Harvest of 1830: The Barbizon Legacy, exh. cat., Harvard University Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 1990), p. 8
  • Paul Galvez, "Courbet's Touch", ed. Frances Fowle, VARIE and Ashgate Publishing Limited (Edinburgh andf Aldershot, U.K., 2003), pp. 25-26, repr. in b/w

Exhibition History

  • Loan Exhibition of the Works of Gustave Courbet, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 04/07/1919 - 05/18/1919
  • Unidentified Exhibition, Fearon Gallery, 1924, Fearon Gallery, New York, 04/12/1924 - 04/26/1924
  • Unidentified Exhibition, Mary Harriman Gallery, 1933, Mary Harriman Gallery, New York, 01/01/1933 - 12/31/1933
  • Chinese sculpture, bronzes, jades, paintings and drawings, Egyptian and Persian sculpture, Pre-Columbian art : selected from the collection of Grenville Lindall Winthrop, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 10/01/1943 - 02/28/1944
  • Masterpieces of European Art, Busch-Reisinger Museum, Cambridge, 06/22/1985 - 09/15/1985
  • The Harvest of 1830: the Barbizon Legacy, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, 08/25/1990 - 10/21/1990
  • HAA 10 Survey Course: The Western Tradition, Art Since the Renaissance, Harvard University Art Museums, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 02/09/2008 - 03/02/2008
  • HAA 10 Survey Course (S421): The Western Tradition: Art Since the Renaissance (Fall 08 Rotation 1), Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 09/13/2008 - 10/19/2008
  • HAA 10 Survey Course (S421): The Western Tradition: Art Since the Renaissance (Fall 09 Rotation 1), Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, 09/02/2009 - 10/12/2009
  • 32Q: 2100 19th Century, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 11/16/2014 - 01/01/2050

Subjects and Contexts

  • Google Art Project

Related Works

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of European and American Art at am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu