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FRENCH ARTISTS
SERIES
The lives and work of
Courbet, Manet and
Degas are the subjects
of a three-part series
presented by Sir Ken-
neth Clark.
The series — 'Three
Faces of France' — begins
on ABC-3 at 9.55pm on
Wednesday with a study
of Courbet.
Courbet, chief of the
realist painters, was born
near Besancon in 1819 and
went to theological college
when he left school. How-
ever, he soon realised that
his first love was art. He
became a pupil of Steuben,
d'Angers and Hesse in
Paris but was largely self-
taught.
He loved substantial
things and romantic themes
and admired the Flemish
painters but he was very
vain and even early self-
portraits reveal his vanity.
When his work became
controversial and he gained
a rich patron, the patron's
vanity mirrored Courbet's
own.
Cartoonists ridiculed
Courbet but officialdom
sought to honour his tal-
ents, though he proved a
rebellious egocentric.
He immersed himself in
politics, directing the
course of fine arts under
the Commune and pulling
down the Napoleonic pillar
in the Place Vendome, an
act which caused his down-
fall when the regime gov-
erning France was
changed.
He escaped io Switzer-
land and died of dropsy in
1877.
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