Gustave Courbet at the Met

On Sunday, we made it up to the Met for the terrific exhibit they're currently mounting of paintings by Gustave Courbet, the iconoclastic Frenchman often called "the first modern painter." Courbet shocked audiences with his robustly realistic portrayals of mundane village life and, more outrageously, his series of almost scientifically (or pornographically) accurate nudes, like The Origin of the World, said by Maxime du Camp to be "the last word in realism." His quasi-self-portraits, like The Desperate Man (above), are also arresting in their simultaneous directness and ambiguity. As compelling as all of those are, we were most struck by Courbet's remarkable ability to capture the power and vitality of the natural world, as in The Stag at Bay (above). The canvas trembles with the energy of the stag and is so overwhelming that you practically have to stand on the other side of the room to take it in. It's a bracing and exhilirating way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

Photos: thanks and thanks