THE ORIGIN OF THE WORLD, by Gustave Courbet

Source: Google Images

Technical Data

My painting is called The Origin of the World, it belongs to Realism and was made by Gustave Courbet. It was painted in 1866. Courbet used oil painting on canvas. Its dimensions are 46 cm x 55 cm. 

This painting is located in the Orsay Museum, in Paris, at the moment. It belonged to Khalil-Bey, and he bought it for doing an ephemeral collection devoted to the celebration of the female body, because he was very flamboyant. After that, what happened with the painting is a mystery. Later, it was bought by the antique dealer Antoine de la Narde in 1868. And finally Jacques Lacan bought L’origine du monde in 1955. The painting arrived finally in the Orsay Museum in 1995, when Jacques Lacan’s family gave it to the French State to pay inheritance debts.

Description and Analysis

This painting represents a nude woman lying on a bed, the colors are not too flashing and the shapes are very good painted.

The artist wanted to describe how the women are only in one painting. It is included in the artistic style of Realism because the painting is objective and it does not want to embellish the reality, and because it represents the ordinary life. I think it is called The Origin Of The World because in the painting is represented the part of the body from which all the people come when we are born.

Additional Information

When this painting was exhibited, there was a big scandal of the people, because in this time people were not used to see this kind of paintings, so some newspapers and museums censored it. 

Some years later, people thought that this painting had to have a model. So looking for a model that inspired Courbet to paint the painting, they found this.

(Image via Google Images)

But the experts of the Orsay Museum and many people think that it’s a fake.

Anyway, this painting is considered to be very important for the Realism.

I do not like this painting very much, because I have chosen two paintings instead of this, but I had to do the project about this painting because some people have chosen the two paintings I liked earlier than me.

Sources:

http://todayinsocialsciences.blogspot.com.es/

http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_origen_del_mundo

http://www.wordreference.com/ for some translations

http://www.slideshare.net/rosarmer/el-siglo-xix-la-pintura-realista

http://noticias.univision.com/mundo/noticias/article/2013-02-08/famosa-pintura-con-desnudo-de-courbet-ya-tiene-rostro#axzz2R2UBMisv

http://hyperallergic.com/64796/other-half-of-courbets-infamous-origin-of-the-world-discovered-in-paris/

http://www.musee-orsay.fr/index.php?id=851&L=1&tx_commentaire_pi1[showUid]=125

JAVIER MORALES, 4ºA