Gustave Courbet

Sale, Hotel Drouot, Paris, (M. Fournier, Desvouges, M. Loys Delteil), 28 December 1912, no. 25;

Private collection, South America.

R. Fernier, La vie et l'oeuvre de Gustave Courbet, Lausanne and Paris 1977, vol. I, p. 50-51, cat. no. 82, illustrated.

P. Courthion, L'Opera Completa di Courbet (trans. from the French by M Anzil Robertini), Milan 1985, p.76, no. 79, illustrated (as Rocce).

Robert Fernier dated this small but powerful and highly finished cliffside view, punctuated by a figure balancing a basket on her head, to circa 1847, ostensibly based on images of the work as it was listed in his 1975 catalogue raisonné in italics. The small, handheld scale of the canvas suggests Courbet painted the scene en plein air, realizing the chiseled rockface with portrait-like precision and great attention to its modulated surface, balancing light and shadow in sharp contrast. The diminutive presence of the passing figure at right, following a narrow but clearly delineated dirt path, confirms the magnitude of the rock's vertical thrust and registers the artist's distance from his subject.

This painting is listed in the 1975 catalogue raisonné in italics and we are grateful to the Comité Courbet for confirming the painting’s authenticity based on first-hand inspection in October 2024.