Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from An Exhibition of Paintings by Courbet: Catalog
Art must, in the first place, strive for beauty and beauty must be graceful, noble, edifying. Subjects which were not in themselves recognized as beautiful must be embellished. Thus, the peasants and fishermen of Leopold Robert were given the bodies of classical deities and the poses of Hellenistic sculptures. They were, one might say, the children of the Arcadian shepherds. Just as Violetta in Ea Traviata, dying of tuberculosis, looks as buxom and blooming as she did at her entrance on the scene, so a peasant to be fit for paint and canvas must have clean hands and face and a fine physique. That the average peasant was badly nourished, lacked sufficient vitamins in his diet, and was as twisted and gnarled as an ancient tree might be true, but the average peasant was not to be represented in art. Only the peasant as a symbol of rural beauty would be permitted.
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