A Burial at Ornans by Gustave Courbet

“A Burial at Ornans” is the absolute and resounding manifesto of Realism, a monumental work through which Gustave Courbet revolutionized the history of art. On an immense panoramic canvas, usually reserved for history painting or great myths, Courbet paints with unprecedented rawness the funeral of a simple peasant in his native village. The composition lines up a dense crowd of life-size figures: gravedigger, clergy in red or strapped black robes, beadles, children, and a cohort of weeping women draped in black. The crucifix stands lugubriously against a gray and desolate sky, towering over the characteristic cliffs of the Doubs. In the foreground, the gaping grave seems to open under the viewer’s feet, inviting them to participate in the ceremony. Devoid of celestial idealization or romantic pathos, this work imposes trivial reality, raw death, and the equality of all in the face of passing.