Gustave Courbet

Exhibited by Wildenstein & Co. Inc.

Material Oil on canvas

Dimensions 75 × 60 cm

Status Vetted

About the Work

In May 1862, Courbet accepted the invitation of a friend, Étienne Baudry, to visit his château in the Saintonge region of western France; there the artist remained until the following April. In the nearby town of Saintes, Courbet became a frequent guest at the salon of Laure Borreau (1826-1902), the beautiful wife of a local textile merchant, Jules Borreau (b. 1822). It has even been suggested she was the “dame superbe” with whom the painter, at that time, declared himself deeply in love.

Aside from the present, haunting likeness, Courbet made two other portraits of Madame Borreau: Mme L… (Laure Borreau), which the painter exhibited at the Salon of 1863 (Fernier 358; Cleveland Museum of Art, inventory no. 1962.2) and Portrait of Madame Borreau (Fernier 664; Musée national des Beaux-Arts d’Alger). The latter painting was probably executed between 1869 and 1872, following the Borreaus’ return to Paris. He also painted a portrait of the Borreaus’ daughter, Gabrielle, Rêverie (Portrait of Gabrielle Borreau) (Fernier 334; Art Institute of Chicago), a work often erroneously said to be a fourth portrait of her mother.

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Provenance

Madame Pierre Goujon, née Lily Reinach (1884-1971), Paris; by descent to
Her heirs, until 1988, when acquired by
Private collection

Literature

(?) T. Duret, Courbet, Paris, 1918, p. 64

C. Léger, Courbet, Paris, 1929, p. 95

G. Mack, Gustave Courbet, New York, 1951, p. 170

A. Chamson, Gustave Courbet (1819-1877), Paris, 1955, n.p. Illustrated pl. 30 (color)

A.T. Lurie, “Gustave Courbet: Madame Boreau,” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, XL, No. 4, April 1962, pp. 66; 71, note 9. Illustrated p. 68, fig. 3

E. Auerbach, “Das Festival von Saint-Germain-des-Près [sic],” Weltkunst, XXXVI, No. 13, July 1966, illustrated p. 641

R. Bonniot, Gustave Courbet en Saintonge, Paris, 1973, pp. 124, 216, 217-218. Illustrated pl. 52

J. Lindsay, Gustave Courbet, His Life and Art, New York and London, 1973, p. 179. Illustrated fig. 53

Paris, Grand Palais, Gustave Courbet, 1977-1978, p. 160, cited under no. 68

R. Fernier, La Vie et l’œuvre de Gustave Courbet: catalogue raisonné, I, Lausanne and Paris, 1977, pp. 166; 204, no. 359. Illustrated p. 205

Brooklyn, Museum and Minneapolis, Institute of Art, Courbet Reconsidered (cat. by S. Faunce and L. Nochlin), 1988-1989, pp. 144, cited under no. 39; 145, under no. 40

St. Petersburg, The State Hermitage Museum, Hidden Treasures Revealed: Impressionist Masterpieces and Other Important French Paintings Preserved by The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg (cat. by A. Kostenevich), 1995, p. 33, cited under no. 5

L. d’Argencourt, assisted by R. Diederen, European Paintings of the Nineteenth Century (The Cleveland Museum of Art, Catalogue of Paintings, Pt. 4), Cleveland, 1999, I, pp. 161; 163, note 5