Gustave Courbet was born on June 10, 1819 in France.  He was the son of a rich farming family.  He was sent to Paris to be a lawyer, but wound up studying art instead. 

Courbet was the leader of the Realist School of Art.  As a Realist, he believed he should show the world as it really was.  He painted ordinary people and places.  Courbet

painted poor people at work.  This went against what was popular at the time, which was pretty people and people.

Courbet painted a variety of subjects from portraits, to nudes, but, most of all, scenes of nature.  His paintings are

filled with beautiful colors, landscapes, and people.

Courbet was the first artist to use a palette knife to create texture in his paintings (he applied paint like one was applying peanut butter to a slice of bread).

Gustave Courbet died on December 31, 1877 in Switzerland.