Biography
Gustave Kourbe, French artist of the XIX century, became famous thanks to an excessive realistic image of naked nature. His canvas confused by the audience by frankness. The writer Alexander Duma (son), once seen the picture "Sleeping", was called the Kourba "Communion, pretended by man and the artist." To this day, the work "The origin of the world" is considered one of the most scandalous and discussed.Childhood and youth
Jean Dezer Gustave Kourbe was born on June 10, 1819 in the French city of Oran, not far from the Swiss border, in the family owner of the vineyards of Razis Kourbe. From the young age, Gustave showed character: in 1831, the boy was given to study in the seminary, and the confessors, listening to his sermon, refused to be absorbed by sins. One after another, representatives of the church ran away from the 12-year-old Frenchman as the devil.
Small naval, wanting to support the reputation of a malicious violator of the morality, led a list of sins, which could be done - from trifling misconduct to gloomy crimes. Training in the seminary did not give fruits, and in 1837 Gustaves at the insistence of the Father entered the Royal College of Besansson to the preparatory courses of jurisprudence.
At the same time, the young man became interested in painting, he was engaged in the representative of Neoclassicism Charles-Antoine flagus. Creativity attracted the Frenchman stronger than the jurisprudence. Kurba wrote:
"In college, I learned to despise the doctrine. I learned everything that was required, and decided not to score with unnecessary things. "In 1839, the young man went to Paris, informing the Father that goes to study the right. In the capital of France, he met Francois Bonven, in the future a great genrist. He showed the Louvre Kourba.
A special impression on the Frenchman produced paintings by small Dutch and glorified Spaniards: Bartoloma Murillo, Francisco de Surbaran, Diego Velasqueza. Later, becoming an artist, Gustaves used their Manera to create bright paintings with dark tones.
Louvre excursion finally convinced a young man in choosing painting as the main activity. He entered the Romanist's workshop of Charles de Shthaiben, then moved to Switzerland and continued his studies. Perhaps here begins the biography of Kourbe artist.
Creation
The Swiss workshops did not paint landscapes and still lifes - the object for the image on the canvas was human nature, most often nude. Perhaps due to the inability to work with another Material of Kourbe, the creative climb from self-portraits began.
In 1841, "Self-portrait with a black dog" was written. "Decoration" was the entrance to the grotto Plezir-Phonten. On the knees of the 22-year-old Gustava got a black Fold Spaniel, which a year later, the artist wrote to parents:
"I got a charming dog, purebred English spaniel, her gave me one of his friends; Everyone is enthusiastic, and in the house you are pleased to her much more than me. "In 1844, "Self-portrait with a black dog" was put up in the Paris Salon - the prestigious exhibition of France. Later, tens of self-portrait wrote: "A man with a tube", "man with a leather belt", "Hello, Mr. Kursbe!", Despair.
In the same year, Gütlebi Kourbe went on a trip to Belgium and the Netherlands, where he met the seller of paintings. Thanks to this, 7 works of the artist bought Hendarrick Villem Mesca - the founder of the Hague school of painting, leading school in the Netherlands. So the Kourbe became known outside his native France.
After the success of the "autoportist with a black dog", the Paris Salon denied the artist in the exhibition - the heyday of the style of Academism. "No" they heard other painters: Eugene Delacroix, Onor Houses, Theodore Rousseau, Antoine Louis Bari. Together they planned to create an art space, which in prestigiousness would not give way to the Paris Salon, but the plans violated the revolution of 1848.
After the revolution, the picture of a curb with enviable regularity appeared in the Paris Salon. In 1849, "afternoon rest in Ornan" was purchased by the French government, and the artist himself was awarded a large gold medal of the salon. The award allowed Gustavu to be exhibited without permission.
In 1853, Kurba created and submitted a picture of the "swimsters" on the court. In the center of the canvas depicts a full woman from the back. Unlike the representatives of the Renaissance era, this woman in modern standards was indecent thick, flashed. One critique noted that at the sight of such a body, "even the crocodile would have lost their appetite."
Found in the picture and biblical motives. Thus, the location of the heroine reminded Mary Magdalene's posture and Jesus Christ from the evangelical plot "Do not touch me" (Picture of Antonio and Corredgio "Noli Me Tangere"). The viewer turned out to be not ready for such a realistic image, and Napoleon III, seeing the picture, indicatively overwhelmed with her whip. Gustave Kourba, who was awaiting the highest praise of society, only regenerated:
"I cried all the artistic world."The unflattering criticism did not frighte the painter, and he continued to draw nude nature. Sometimes it was posing with women from the pictures of the French photographer Vall de Villenev, and therefore the works of the Kourbe became more like realistic photos, and not on artwork.
In 1866, Gustina Kourbe wrote two scandalous paintings at once, one of which, "the origin of the world", was first exhibited only in the XX century. The "Sleeping" canvas, which became the public domain in 1872, caused another storm of indignation.
Two naked sleeping girls are depicted in the picture, probably after sexual intercourse - scattered decorations hints, crumpled bedding. The obscenity of the canvas served as a reason for the police investigation in 1872. For more than a century, until 1988, the work was held in private collections prohibited for publication.
"What monster ... could this bastard happen? Under what a cap, on which dung pile, watered with a mixture of wine, beer, poisonous saliva and smelly mucus, this hubbang, this woven and hairy pumpkin, this womb, pretending to be a person and artist, is the embodiment of idiotic and powerless, "Alexander Duma (Son) was outraged In a letter to Georges Sand, seeing "Sleeping".Fortunately, Duma Jr. did not find the scandalous picture of the "Origin of the World", but it became the key to the solution of the Great Art Secret - who is a simulator. On the canvas, written in order for the sheikh Kalil Sheriff Pasha, depicted a woman with stretched hips: in the foreground covered with hair genitals, then - belly and bare breasts.
According to the common version, Kurba posed Ireland Joanna Hiffernan - one of the "sleeping", the lover of the artist James Whistler.
In 2013, a private collector demonstrated the found part of the "origin of the world" found. The picture shows the head of the girl, alleged heroines of the scandalous canvas. In the girl, art historian Jean-Jacques Fernier recognized Hiffernan.
Workers of the Orsay Museum, where the original "origin of the world" is now exposed, this theory was challenged. In 2018, the historian Claude Shupp has deciphered in the letters of Alexander Duma (Son) to Georges Sand phrase:
"It is impossible to describe the most elegant and accurate brush delicate Nutro Mademoiselle Kenya from the opera."Probably, it was about the famous ballerina Constance Kenya, which at the time of writing the "origin of the world" was the mistress of Sheikh Khalil Sheriff Pasha. Modern art historians consider this hypothesis the most believable.
"The origin of the world" is the most scandalous picture in the collection of Gustas Kourba. Written in 1866, she survived the second world war, was considered lost, but in 1955 was found by psychoanalyst Jacques Lakan. The work was kept secret from prying eyes behind the shift cannol, served as inspiration for writing the labor "Four basic concepts of psychoanalysis."
After the death of Lakan, the painting was transferred to the Oars Museum to paying the tax for inheritance. Since that time, the "origin of the world" is exhibited behind the bulletproof glass, and the guard is on a round-the-clock, to stop the auditor's rapid reaction.
Personal life
About the personal life of Hustava Kourba is known little. It is said that the artist was constantly twisting novels with simulars, including Joann Hifferman and Constance Kenya. But one of them, Virginia Bina, held the attention of Kourbe for 10 years.
The couple met in Paris in the early 1840s. In 1847, they had a son who was destined to live 25 years. In the 1850s, the lovers spread goodbye, supposedly because Gustavu bored society of the only girl. Virginia left a child to himself.
Death
In 1871, Kurba supported the Paris Commune. He was appointed by the Commissioner for Culture, whose duties were the protection of works of art during the siege of Paris. Taking advantage of the official position, the artist proposed to demolish the Wandom column, which allegedly produced the "impression of a bloody stream in the peaceful garden."
On maternity demolition monument says that
"The column ... is a monument to barbarism, a symbol of rough strength and false glory, the statement of militarism, the denial of international law, the constant insult of the winners defeated by the parties, a continuous attempt by one of the three great principles of the French Republic - Brotherhood ...".On May 18, 1871, the column was demolished, and 10 days later the commune fell. Followers or executed, or arrested. The first time of the naval was able to avoid punishment. On May 30, the police searched his workshop, confiscated 106 cloths. June 7 Gustava caught. For the overthrow of the Vandom column, he was sentenced to six months of imprisonment. Also, the artist had to compensate money spent on the restoration of the monument.
Kursbe had to split the paintings, but the revenue funds did not have enough. Not wanting to go bankrupt because of the annual payments in the amount of 10 thousand francs, July 23, 1873, the artist escaped to Switzerland.
Undermined health, namely, the developing hemorrhoids and water workers have turned the last years of the life of Kurba to hell. Death found him the day until 1878, December 31, 1877.
Work
- 1841 - "Self-portrait with a black dog"
- 1845 - "Despair"
- 1849 - "After lunch in Ornan"
- 1853 - "Buckles"
- 1853 - "Viesels"
- 1854 - "Hello, Mr. Kourbe!"
- 1855 - "artist's workshop"
- 1861 - "Woman in white stockings"
- 1866 - "Sleeping"
- 1866 - "The origin of the world"
- 1870 - "Wave"