Gustave Courbet (French: Jean Désiré Gustave Courbet) was a French painter and is considered the father of Realism. He was born in Ornans on June 10, 1819, and was originally sent to Paris to study law, but soon abandoned it in order to devote himself to painting. By studying the great masters at the Louvre and rejecting both Romanticism and Classicism, he developed a new artistic approach that became known as Realism. He gained recognition with works such as *Self-Portrait with a Black Dog*, *A Burial at Ornans*, and *The Stone Breakers*.
A politically engaged artist, Courbet participated in the Revolution of 1848 and later became involved with the Paris Commune. His independent spirit often brought him into conflict with the authorities; in 1855, after several of his paintings were rejected by the Paris Exposition, he organized his own exhibition under the banner of Realism. Following the fall of the Commune, he was held partly responsible for the demolition of the Vendôme Column and was sentenced to prison and a heavy fine. To avoid further punishment, he fled to Switzerland, where he died in exile in 1877.
