Parallel Lines: Gustave Courbet's “Paysages de Mer” and Gustave Le ...

Mollie Holtman

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• Publié par: asoviraj
• Nombre de lectures: 87
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

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Parallel Lines: Gustave Courbets “Paysages de Mer” and Gustave Le Grays Seascapes, 1856–70

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 Dominique de Font-Réaulx   The links between the seascapes of Gustave Le Gray and Gustave Courbets marine paintings, orpaysages de mer, were first underlined by Aaron Scharf in 1968. In his still unequaledArt and Photography, he juxtaposed a Le Gray photograph (Mediterranée, Cette, grande lame,1857, fig. 1) and a Courbet painting (Marine, Moon Effect, 1869, ancient coll. Fischer), stressing the aesthetic similarities between the two pictures. The photographer and the painter both chose to reproduce empty seas with large, cloudy skies subjects that were quite new when the works were created. The compositions are also comparable, for both images are cut in two by a firmly drawn horizon line (see figs. 1 and 2 [a similar Courbet seascape]). 

  Figure 1 Gustave Le Gray (French, 1820–1884),Mediterranée, Cette, grande lame,1857. Albumen print. Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, Département des Estampes et de la photographie. 

  Figure 2 Gustave Courbet (French, 1819–1877),LImmensité, 1869. Oil on canvas, 60 x 82.2 cm (23 5/8 x 32 3/8 in.). London, Victoria and Albert Museum. Photo: Art Resource, New York.

Font-Réaulx Parallel Lines: Courbets “Paysages der Mer” and Le Grays Seascapes, 1856–70 Papers from the SymposiumLooking at the Landscapes: Courbet and Modernism Held at the J. Paul Getty Museum on March 18, 2006 © 2007 J. Paul Getty Trust