I deny that art can be taught, or, in other words, maintain that art is completely individual, and that the talent of each artist is but the result of his own inspiration and his own study of past tradition. — Gustave Courbet Copy Share Image
“Art in painting should consist only of the representation of things that are visible and tangible.” — Gustave Courbet Copy Share
Titles have never given a just idea of things; were it otherwise, the work would be superfluous. — Gustave Courbet Copy Share
When I am dead, let it be said of me: he belonged to no school, to no church, to no institution, to no academy,… — Gustave Courbet Copy Share
“The title of Realist was thrust upon me just as the title of Romantic was imposed upon the men of 1830. Titles have never… — Gustave Courbet Copy Share
France is the only nation in which astoundingly small numbers of civilized patrons reside. — Gustave Courbet Copy Share
I am not one who was born in the custody of wisdom; I am one who is fond of olden times and intense in… — Gustave Courbet Copy Share
“The real artists are those who pick up their age exactly at the point to which it has been carried by preceding times. To… — Gustave Courbet Copy Share
Painting is the representation of visible forms. The essence of realism is its negation of the ideal. — Gustave Courbet Copy Share
I hope always to earn my living by my art without having ever deviated by even a hair's breadth from my principles... to please… — Gustave Courbet Copy Share
Without trying to clear up the degree of correctness of a qualification which no one, one must hope, will be asked to understand exactly,… — Gustave Courbet Copy Share
Beauty, like truth, is relative to the time when one lives and to the individual who can grasp it. — Gustave Courbet Copy Share
On the left is the realist tradition of the 19th century, with its impulse to social description, radical criticism and meditation on things as… — Gustave Courbet Copy Share
