Shop art print and framed art Les Casseurs de pierre by Gustave Courbet

Les Casseurs de pierres (The Stone Breakers) was painted in 1849 by Gustave Courbet and destroyed in 1945 during a bombing raid in Germany. It measured 165 × 257 cm. Two life-size men stand out against a dark hillside. In rags and broken bodies, they turn their backs to the viewer, absorbed in their task. In the foreground, a man with a hammer"; in the background, a man with a stone; in the background, on the left of the canvas, a wicker basket; on the right, a pot, a spoon and a piece of black bread in a saddlebag. " The large orange signature is at bottom left. The picture was painted in 1849 and was one of three works Courbet exhibited at the Salon of 1850-1851 (along with The Peasants of Flagey Returning from the Fair and A Funeral in Ornans). Courbet recounts how he came across these workers by the side of the road: "I was on my way to the Château de Saint-Denis to paint a landscape, (...) I stopped to consider two men by the side of the road; it is rare to come across the most complete expression of misery, so I immediately came up with a painting". The two men had agreed to pose for the painter. Courbet presented his painting as follows: " - Letter from Courbet to Jules Champfleury, Ornans, spring 1850"; It was first exhibited at the Salon of 1850-1851, then at the Courbet Exhibition of 1867, after which it was bought by Laurent-Richard, who sold it to M. Binand in 1871. In 1909, after Binand's death, it was acquired by the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister in Dresden: the [...]

 

This artwork is a painting from the classical period. It belongs to the realism style.

 

Find the full description of Les Casseurs de pierre by Gustave Courbet on Wikipedia.