Exhibition
Gustave Courbet
Exhibition
Gustave Courbet
Exhibition at the Leopold Museum
Gustave Courbet: Realist and Rebel
Gustave Courbet: Realist and Rebel
Exhibition at the Leopold Museum
19 February to 21 June 2026
The Gustave Courbet exhibition at the Leopold Museum offers a comprehensive overview of his life and artistic work. It demonstrates how Courbet, as a key figure in Realism, profoundly influenced and transformed 19th-century art.
Unlike many artists of his time, he did not paint idealized or mythological scenes, but rather depicted everyday people, social realities, and landscapes. The exhibition presents works from various periods of his life, including self-portraits, socially critical paintings, landscapes, seascapes, and nudes.
Furthermore, his political stance is explored, particularly his involvement in the Paris Commune, which later led to his exile in Switzerland. This makes it clear that Courbet was not only a significant painter, but also an artist who consciously defied the traditional rules of art. A rebel, in other words… 😉
Gustave Courbet
Tickets
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EUR 19Admission to the exhibition & permanent collection. We over the official price
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The Details
at a glance
Exhibition
Gustave Courbet: Realist and Rebel
19 February to 21 June 2026
Opening Hours
Monday, Wednesday to Sunday, 10.00 – 18.00 h
Tuesday: Closed
Prices
EUR 19 for adults aged 26 and over
EUR 16 for people under 26 and seniors over 65
EUR 2.50 for children aged 7–18
Free entry for children under 7
Same prices with us!
ICOM Card
Free entry upon presentation of the card and ID.
Who was
Gustave Courbet?
Gustave Courbet (1819–1877) was a French painter and a leading figure of Realism. He came from a wealthy farming family and began practising drawing at the age of 14. His family later sent him to Paris in 1840 to study law, but while there he frequently visited the Louvre to copy works by the Old Masters.
During this period he was still searching for his own artistic style, and one of his important early paintings, “Le Désespéré” (“The Desperate Man”), was created. Between 1841 and 1847 only three of the paintings he submitted were accepted by the Paris Salon. Nevertheless, despite his father’s wishes—who was financially supporting him—Courbet decided to devote himself fully to painting, which allowed him more time to experiment, travel and gain confidence.
After 1848 his success at the Paris Salon improved, and he exhibited ten works at once, which received positive reviews. His painting “The Stone Breakers” caused a scandal, while “After Dinner at Ornans” won a gold medal. As a result, Courbet became widely known and established himself as a leading representative of Realist painting in France. At the same time, many of his works repeatedly provoked controversy, especially “L’Origine du monde” (“The Origin of the World”).
Courbet travelled widely, spending longer periods in Amsterdam and Frankfurt am Main, and also visiting Belgium and United Kingdom. During these travels he met many other artists.
In the final phase of his life he spent six months in prison after taking part in the destruction of the Vendôme Column during the Paris Commune. He was later ordered to pay 335,000 francs in damages. Instead of paying, he fled with his students and assistants to Switzerland, where he died at the age of only 58.
Exhibition Gustave Courbet at the Leopold Museum: Félix Nadar, Portrait of Gustave Courbet, 1866 © Leopold Museum, Vienna, Gift of Christian Skrein, Photo: Leopold Museum, Vienna
The large retrospective at the Leopold Museum presents around 130 works — paintings and drawings — showing how Gustave Courbet worked during different phases of his career. Visitors can see important pieces that shaped his painting, including several very famous works that many people may already recognise.
As we have not yet visited the exhibition ourselves, we will highlight only three or four works that you should pay attention to when you go.
As mentioned earlier, the exhibition also includes the two works that made Courbet well known at the Paris Salon. One of them is “The Stone Breakers”, which caused a scandal, and the other is “After Dinner at Ornans”, a scene of everyday life that won him a prize. Both paintings show ordinary people in everyday situations: in one, labourers are working, while in the other people sit around a table after dinner listening to a violin player. So what makes one acceptable and the other scandalous? Is it the size of the painting, or the fact that manual labour was seen more negatively than a social gathering? That is something you can decide for yourself when you see them.
Probably the most important work connected with the exhibition is “L’Origine du monde” (1866). This very direct painting caused a major scandal at the time because it shows the torso of a naked woman in close view — including her breast, stomach and vulva — in a highly realistic way. Nothing is hidden or idealised; the figure is shown openly, with the focus clearly placed on the centre of the body.
The painting was commissioned by the Turkish diplomat and art collector Halil Şerif Paşa, also known as Khalil Bey. The identity of the model is still unknown. Although the diplomat displayed other nude paintings openly in his collection, he kept this one hidden in his private rooms.
After his death the painting passed through several private collections until it eventually entered the collection of the Musée d’Orsay in 1995, where it has been exhibited ever since.
The exhibition
Gustave Courbet: Realist and Rebel
Finally, I would like to take a look at another well-known work by Gustave Courbet. The painting “Le Fou de peur” (“The Man Mad with Fear”, 1844) closely resembles the famous “Le Désespéré” (“The Desperate Man”, 1843–1845). The two works differ in their composition: The Desperate Man is a close-up of the head, while The Man Mad with Fear shows the whole body.
However, both paintings share the striking gesture of the hands gripping the head. In each image the eyes are wide open, the hands are tangled in the hair, and the figure appears shocked or overwhelmed.
The work shown in Vienna is generally considered a study — an earlier version that led to the smaller and more frontal painting “The Desperate Man”.
We hope that we will manage to travel to Vienna this spring to see the exhibition ourselves!
Yours,
Céline
Text copyright: © Céline Mülich, 2026
Image credits: all press images, see individual references.
