Why it matters
Courbet painted an ordinary funeral in his small home town on the enormous scale normally reserved for heroic or religious history painting. Its frank realism caused an 'explosive reaction' at the Salon of 1850, brought him instant fame and is seen as a turning point in 19th-century French art.
Did you know?
- It was painted in 1849–1850.
- It may have been inspired by the funeral of Courbet's grandfather.
- It draws on Dutch 17th-century group portraits.
Based on the Wikipedia article A Burial at Ornans (CC BY-SA 4.0).
