Gustave Courbet was the leader and theorist of the Realist movement in 19th-century French painting. Rejecting the idealized forms of Neoclassicism and the romantic drama of Romanticism, Courbet insisted on painting ordinary people and everyday scenes with unflinching directness. His massive, confrontational canvases challenged the Parisian art establishment and helped lay the groundwork for Impressionism and all subsequent modern art movements.
