Gustave Courbet (French, 1819-1877)

Chteau de Chillon

细节

Gustave Courbet (French, 1819-1877)
Courbet, G.
Chteau de Chillon
signed 'G. Courbet' (lower left)
oil on canvas
21 x 25 in. (54 x 67 cm.)
Painted in 1873

来源

Niess Collection, Lausanne (by 1947).
Mme. Niess-Vuilleumier, Lausanne.
Andr Held Collection, Ecubens, Switzerland (before 1982).
Anon. sale, Sotheby's, London, 15 June 1982, lot 45.
Wildenstein, New York.
Acquired from the above by the present owner.

出版

Journal de Genve, May 12, 1874 (reprinted in exhibition catalogue, 1982, cited below, p. 51).
"Exposition des tableaux Lausanne," L'Estafette, May 20, 1874 (reprinted in exhibition catalogue, 1982, cited below, p. 50).
Courbet dans les collections prives franaises, Galerie Claude Aubry, Paris, 1966 (cited under no. 35).
P. Chessex, Courbet en Exil, 1873-1877, (mmoire de licence prsent la Facult des lettres, Universit de Lausanne), 1973.
R. Fernier, La vie et l'oeuvre de Gustave Courbet: catalogue raisonn, Lausanne and Paris, 1977, vol. II, p. 192, no. 932, (illustrated). Also cited pp. 118, 214 (under no. 990).
P. Chessex, Courbet et la Suisse, exh. cat, La Tour de Peilz, 1982, pp. 47, 49, fig. 87 and 89.

展览

Lausanne, Muse Arlaud, May 1874.
Fleurie, Switzerland, Gustave Courbet, October 1947, no. 5.
La Tour-de-Peilz, Gustave Courbet, 1950, no. 50.
Roslyn, New York, Nassau County Museum of Art, 1993 (on loan)
New York, Salander-O'Reilly Galleries, Gustave Courbet: Later Paintings, 1998, no. 23.
Roslyn, New York, Nassau County Museum of Art, Gustave Courbet, 1998, no. 73R.

拍品专文

Courbet repeatedly chose to depict the Chteau de Chillon during his Swiss exile. The dramatic setting of this medieval castle situated on a bluff overlooking Lake Geneva proved to be a popular theme that found a ready audience among his buyers. He would often include such picturesque details as sailboats in the composition, while at other times, the view would be stark and bleak only showing the imposing chateau with no human presence. Chessex 1982 reproduces an article in L'Estafettte, a Lausanne journal dated 20 May 1874: "...M. Courbet l'a vu (le chteau de Chillon) pris du ct le moins avantageux, le ton gristre et plomb des murs, le lac furieux qui fouette le rivage, les montagnes du Valais au bleu douteux qui semblent peser lourdement sur le chteau et vouloir l'craser...." This description, which stresses the unusual angle of the chateau, together with the choppinesss of the waters of the lake, helps to identify this work as the one shown in Lausanne in 1874. The history of the chteau most likely held a symbolic meaning for Courbet as well. It had provided the setting for Byron's well-known 1819 poem, The Prisoner of Chillon. Byron had been inspired by the celebrated political prisoner, Bonivard, who had been confined for four years in its dungeon in 1532. Most likely, Courbet identified his own exile with Bonivard's and thereby the Chteau.

Courbet painted a second version of this view of the Chteau in 1875 (Fernier, no. 990).

Sarah Faunce will include this painting in her forthcoming critical catalogue of the works of Gustave Courbet.