Gustave Courbet

Private Collection, United States
Sale: Sotheby's, New York, May 29, 1980, lot 64, illustrated
Seibu Department Stores, Tokyo
Acquired from the above by the present owner circa 1986

New York, Kraushaar Gallery, December 1939

Robert Fernier, La vie et l'Oeuvre de Gustave Courbet, catalogue raisonné,  Lausanne and Paris, 1977, vol. II, p. 205, no. 965, illustrated p. 207

The following condition report was kindly provided by Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc.: This painting has been quite recently restored. The canvas has a light glue lining and if the varnish were to be slightly freshened, the painting could be hung as is. In the sky small spots of restoration have been applied randomly here, in the dark trees on the right side, and to a lesser extent in the trees in the center and on the left. Our experience with Courbet indicates that almost always retouches are applied to subdue Courbet's loose applications of paint and the spontaneity that is achieved through the use of the palette knife. While there may be some slight thinness in the trees or in the sky, in our experience retouches have very often been added in areas which are in fact not damaged. However, having said this, the painting looks well and is in very healthy condition.
"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."

An especially harsh winter in the Franche-Comté greeted Courbet when he returned to Ornans to say his final goodbyes to his lifelong friend, Urbain Cuenot, who died in January 1867.  The cold months that followed would provide the setting for Courbet's most impressive views of winter, culminating in his monumental The Death of the Hunted Stag (Musée des Beaux-Arts et d'Archéologie, Besançon).  The snow-covered mountains and frozen streams offered Courbet exciting, new subject matter, which lent itself perfectly to his technical virtuosity. His brushing, scraping, rubbing and smoothing the paint surface with a palette knife captured the textures of the winter terrain around Ornans, ranging from the soft snow still clinging to the branches of the trees to the hard-packed, accumulation of several inches of snowfall on the frozen ground. Courbet was inspired; he eagerly waited for the snow to fall, even ordering a reflector so he could paint at night (Petra ten-Doesschate Chu, ed., Letters of Gustave Courbet, Chicago, 1992, p. 303, letter 67-2 and p. 306, letter 67-6).

While Robert Fernier dates our painting to Courbet's later Swiss period, Sarah Faunce feels that stylistically it is closer to the snow landscapes Courbet executed in the mid-1860s.