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Lot Essay
The wave is a recurrent theme in Courbet's work, and Fernier's catalogue of the artist's oeuvre lists some fifty paintings of the storm-tossed ocean. Almost half of these depict a single wave crashing onto shore.
Courbet's creation of these tumultuous seascapes coincided with the final period of his creative independence, and reflect the turmoil that devastated the last years of his life. Like the huge, angry apples he painted while imprisoned for the destruction of the Vendôme column, this seascape is painted with all the fury the now-exiled artist could muster.
Jean-Jacques Fernier has examined and authenticated this work and will include it in the supplement of his forthcoming Courbet catalogue raisonné.
Another Courbet scholar has expressed doubts about the attribution.
Courbet's creation of these tumultuous seascapes coincided with the final period of his creative independence, and reflect the turmoil that devastated the last years of his life. Like the huge, angry apples he painted while imprisoned for the destruction of the Vendôme column, this seascape is painted with all the fury the now-exiled artist could muster.
Jean-Jacques Fernier has examined and authenticated this work and will include it in the supplement of his forthcoming Courbet catalogue raisonné.
Another Courbet scholar has expressed doubts about the attribution.