Courbet's Exhibitionism

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25 6 To place <strong>Courbet's</strong> 1855 show, we must understand how rare any individual shows were in France. The most common examples of these events were the posthumous shows organized for recently deceased Academicians and held in prestigious locations such as the Ecole itself. Galleries at this time were still picture shops displaying and selling a variety of work by a variety of artists. Artists occasionally held their own shows in their studios, as David did in 1799 and Horace Vernet in 1822, but, by being held in their studios, these shows preserved the dignity of hiO art events, even when they were intended as protest t . <strong>Courbet's</strong> 1855 show has always been identified with this tradition, a protest against the Exposition Jury's refusal of his two major pictures, The Artist's Studio and A Burial at Ornans (figs. 12 and 13). And yet even before he submitted his pictures to the Jury' he had informed Nieuwerkerke, the Intendant des Beaux-Arts, that he was hoping to mount a private exhibition to compete with the Universal Ex- GAZETTE DES BEAUX-ARCS position, land he had dropped several hints to his patron Alfred Blruyas that such a show (which he wanted Bruyas to subsidize) was in the offing l 3. One could argue that he anticipated that his pictures would be rejected, but it must also be acknowledged that he very much wanted, from the beginning, to hold this show and to hold it on a site identified with the distribution of art and not its production, in other words, to hold it as a commercial enterprise. Indeed he had already made two previlous attempts in this direction in 1850, in Besanrgon and in Dijon, the first in a market hall, the second in mouse that also held a cafe. In both cases he had plastered the town with posters advertising his show and had charged a fifty centime admission fee t4 . Riat quotes him as feeling that the peasantry of Omans had thought he was an idiot because he had let them see his works! for free, "which evidently proves it's silly to have a kind heart, for it merely deprives one of funds without enriching others in spirit or purse. To be free, "Lis 0Z gBAID®S4lltflI5 4.Tmm wjb~ W. lost I M-11 FIG. 4. - J. JOURDAN, Le Palais de l'Industrie, Tutgis Editeur, Paris, 1855. peo swa so to t loc; in mu be, mo wh tale mu in art ye ins in tip ha te- B( di a fc tl a, R c V p e f I
eople want to pay, so that their judgment won't be Hayed by gratitude; they are right. I want to learn and I'll be so ruthless that I'll give everyone the right 15 . tell me the most cruel truths" This leads to my second point, the issue of a suitable )cation for art exhibitions. The annual Salon took place I the Louvre until 1848 when, evicted from the tuseum, it began a nomadic existence l 6. Pressure had egun to mount in the 1830s to evict it from the Louvre, Iostly coming from conservatives who felt that art ,hich increasingly rejected tradition had no right to par- Ike of the elevated provenance associated with that tuseum. The Salons of 1849, 1850-51, 1852, were held 1 the Tuileries and in the Palais-Royal; 1853 presented rtists with the worst disappointment of all, for that ear's Salon was held in temporary buildings surround- Ig the Imperial furniture warehouse at Menus-Plaisirs i northern Paris. During these years there was con- ,nual talk of suppressing the Salon altogether; Ingres ad actually recommended such a course when he :stified before the 1848 Commission permanente des ieaux-Arts: "In order to remedy this overflow of me- . iocrities, which has resulted in there no longer being French School, this banality which is a public misortune, which afflicts taste, and which overwhelms he administration whose resources it absorbs to no vail, it would be necessary to give up expositions..." 17 tumors and uncertainty ran rife through the artists' ommunity. Would there continue to be a Salon ? If so, vhere would it be held ? The very future of contem- >orary art seemed to be at stake during these years, so '.ourbet's carnival tent would not seem very funny to hose who feared that contemporary art might end up xactly there. Art galleries as we know them were still in their inancy in the first half of the century. In 1843 the critic .outs Peisse wrote: "Outside the Louvre there would Io Ion Rer be a Salon, there would be only picture ,hops" i8. Galleries were then indeed picture shops seling, indiscriminately, art supplies, curios, and small >ictures from the lower categories of art - genre, land- :cape, still life l9 . The common conservative complaint hat the Salon had become a bazaar or a picture shop ,howed that, in fact, these institutions were seen as the mly alternative to the museum. So the two poles on he exhibition spectrum were the Louvre, for exposiions of educational, historical art, and the picture shop 'or exhibitions of commercially viable, decorative art. knd yet art dealers at this time were not interested in )old entrepreneurial initiatives, such as the promotion Ind marketing of a trademarked product, namely the COURBET'S EXHIBITIONISM 257 FIG. 5. - Auguste BELIN. "Sortie du Bat de 1' Opdra", Journal amu$ant, January 1859. b¢uf 6wt la r~iarrac qiu est tratnh pat lea labor FIG. 6. - Le Monde Renverse, Pellerin Imprimeur, Epinal, 1829.
Page 1 and 2: COURBET' S EXHIBITIONISM In a lette
Page 3: described Courbet's 1855 show as an
Page 7 and 8: in France. It was only because of D
Page 9 and 10: COURBET'S EXHIBITIONISM Ever since
Page 11 and 12: FIG. 1 4. - C. THURSTON THOMPSON. "
Page 13: 18. Louis PEISSE, "Le Salon de 1843

Courbet's Exhibitionism

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