Gustave Courbet, the Origin of His World

The film is about the French painter Gustave Courbet (1819-1877), who managed to shatter many beliefs that had seemed unshakable. The title of the film brings to mind one of the most marvellous of the artist’s paintings, “The Origin of the World” (1866), which depicts a womb – a female body with head and legs out of view. With this work, Courbet challenged all the moral and art criteria, upended the foundation of petty subjectivity, and celebrated the turning point in expressing the social position of artists. Courbet, who held radical political views, was a man of action. With the opening of the Pavilion of Realism in 1855, he was able to shake up the mechanism of the French art system that had been running smoothly. For Courbet the events of the Paris Commune in 1871 resulted in his being imprisoned and he was forced to spend the rest of his life in exile in Switzerland. The film describes the artist’s spiritual path via his creation. The authors discuss the possible arguments which might have led the artist to consider complete truthfulness and everyday life material for painting.

Introduction by Tiina Abel