Gustave Courbet

Collection Jacques Dubourg, Paris
Drs. Fritz and Peter Nathan, Zurich (before 1968)
Norton Simon Collection, Pasadena, California (by 1972)
Private Collection (and sold: Sotheby-Parke Bernet, New York, October 29, 1981, lot 33A)
Private Collection, Japan

Paris, Galerie Claude Aubry, Courbet dans les collection privées françaises, 1966, no. 25, illustrated
Portland University Art Museum, Oregon, Recent Acquistions by the Norton Simon Museum of Art, November 1968-February 1969
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, on loan
Princeton, The Art Museum Princeton University, Selections from the Norton Simon Museum of Art, 1972, no. 23, illustrated
San Francisco, California Palace of the Legion of Honor, 1974, on loan
Tokyo, Murauchi Art Museum, The Courbet Exhibition:  A Painter with Hunter's Eye, November 1-December 24, 2002, no. 4B-10, illustrated (travelling exhibition to Osaka, Osaka Municipal Museum of Art, January 10-February 16, 2003, Nagoya, Matsuzakaya Art Museum, February 22-March 11, 2003 and Hiroshima, Museum of Art, March 21-May 11, 2003)

David W. Steadman, "The Norton Simon Exhibition at Princeton" in Art Journal, Autumn 1972, vol. 32, no. 1, pp. 34-40
Robert Fernier, La Vie et l'Oeuvre de Gustave Courbet, Lausanne and Paris, 1978, vol. II, pp. 104-105, no. 741, illustrated
Pierre Courthion, L'Opera completa di Courbet, Milan, 1985, no. 732, illustrated

Klaus Herding, Courbet:  To Venture Independence, New Haven, 1991, p. 81, fig. 35

The following condition report was kindly provided by Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc.: This painting is in beautiful condition. The canvas has a very old glue lining which is nicely stabilizing the surface. The paint layer is very nicely textured throughout and essentially there are no significant retouches. The little green spots in a small cluster in the upper center of the sky are all original. The remainder of the paint layer, Given Courbet's technique involving a palette knife, is very healthy and any small, random scrapes or apparent abrasions are all original and a result of his technique. This picture should be hung as is.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

This curious hybrid combines two of Courbet's most popular subjects from the late 1860s:  Ornans snow scenes and Etretat seascapes. A cold, crunchy winter snow covers the ground, trees and cliffs while a footpath leads down to the sea visible in the distance under a grey winter sky.  But we are not in Ornans, the site of most of Courbet's snow scenes and where he would have experienced first-hand the cold winter months, especially in 1866-7, a period of heavy snow fall in the Franche-Comté.  And we also are not in Etretat, where the temperate coastal climate would have prevented a heavy snowfall.  Even Robert Fernier, in his title for the same setting without the snow (RF 739), was perplexed, listing the work as Les Falaises d'Etretat(?). 

Courbet's most intense painting campaign devoted to seascapes occurred in September 1869.  He stayed at Etretat for the month, most likely after receiving a lucrative commission from dealers such as Durand-Ruel or Haro to paint seascapes.  He writes to his friend, Jules Castagnary on September 29 from Paris: "Did I ever earn my bread and butter in Etretat! I painted twenty seascapes, two of which are for the Exhibition."(Petra ten-Doesschate Chu, ed., Letters of Gustave Courbet, Chicago, 1992, p. 354, letter 69-9). 

The present work is thought to have been painted in 1870; thereby combining Courbet's Etretat experience with his everlasting ties to his native Ornans. While a fantastical invention by Courbet of a setting that did not exist, it was nevertheless a scene that realistically combined the solitary world of a cold winter day with the similar mood of a calm sea – each setting devoid of human presence.  Both subjects – and the feeling they evoked - were recurring themes in Courbet's paintings from the beginning to the end of his career.

This painting once belonged to the great American collector, Norton Simon.