Realism in France

Gustave Courbet

Young Ladies of the Village

1851–52

Oil on canvas, 194.9 × 261 cm. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Courbet's three sisters, out walking near Ornans; one gives alms to a young cowherd.

• Salon critics in 1852 found it crude and mocked the models' plain features and country dress.
• X-rays show Courbet enlarged the figures as he worked.
• Calling country girls "demoiselles", young ladies, blurred class lines, part of what unsettled Paris critics.

Image: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York · Public Domain (Met Open Access)