After 175 years, Gustave Courbet’s slow procession of mourners still stirs even the hardened modern heart. Most obviously, this is because it unflinchingly confronts mankind’s eternal subject and does ...

After a seven-year tug of war, a French court has ruled that Facebook was wrong to close the social media account of educator Frédéric Durand without warning after he posted an image of Gustave ...

Gustave Courbet’s infamous “The Origin of the World,” an intimate portrait of a female model’s nether regions, has been shocking pretty much since it was painted in 1866. Even more shocking, though, ...

Gustave Courbet was already an art star but still itching for greater renown when he took matters into his own bold hands in 1855. Dissatisfied with the works representing him in the official Salon, ...

Of all the jaw-dropping paintings in “Gustave Courbet,” the landmark survey of the great French artist now at the Metropolitan Museum, the jaw drops furthest for one that was painted in 1866, for a ...

For decades, art lovers believed the painting was lost, maybe even destroyed, a casualty of Red Army or Nazi looting in Hungary during World War II. But unlike so many other tales of plundered ...

After finally agreeing to teach painting, Gustave Courbet brought a cow – rather than a human – to model for his class. The French artist’s conviction that the "living art’’ he sought to paint ...

Why is Christian Science in our name? Our name is about honesty. The Monitor is owned by The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and we’ve always been transparent about that. The church publishes the ...

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or ...

In The Meeting, Gustave Courbet depicts his chance encounter with a wealthy patron, Alfred Bruyas, on a dirt road in the open countryside. Also called Bonjour Monsieur Courbet, the scene is a study in ...