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Lot Essay
Gustave Courbet stayed with Etienne Baudry, the first owner of the present painting, from May to September 1862, during the first part of his year-long stay in the Saintonge region of western France. An eccentric landowner, Baudry had been introduced to Courbet by the artist's friend and champion, the famous art critic Jules-Antoine Castagnary. Baudry's book, Le Camp des Bourgeois, was illustrated by Courbet in 1868, and the two men remained firm friends until the end of Courbet's life. In a letter of June 1862 to his friend Jules Troubat, Courbet wrote glowingly of his sojourn: "I am slaving away...painting nude women and landscapes in the prettiest countryside you have ever seen, and in a magnificent castle where I live alone except for a man and his mistress." (Petra ten-Doesschate Chu, ed., Letters of Gustave Courbet).
Courbet had a profound affection for the countryside, and a strong sense of his own family history, which was deeply rooted in a sense of rural tradition. In this painting, which shows a rider taking a gentle stroll through the parkland at Rochemont, the Baudry family estate, Courbet paints an unusually atmospheric scene: the emphasis is not only, like in many of his landscapes, on the physicality of trees or rocks, but also on the soft, dappled light, which draws the viewer into the painting, and brings it close to the dreamier landscapes of Courbet's contemporary, Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot (fig. 1). Nature here is a revitalising refuge, and the painting conveys the sense of ease and comfort that Courbet felt during his long stay at Rochemont (fig. 2).
Baudry records (quoted in Bonniot, op. cit.) that the painting was inspired by a lunch party that he hosted in honour of a Parisian theatre troupe. The occasion culminated in a donkey ride, during which Courbet was thrown from his mount - a spritely donkey named Balthasar.
The authenticity of the present work has been confirmed by Jean-Jacques Fernier (copy of the certificate dated 15 September 2003) and by Sarah Faunce (copy of a letter dated 13 August 2003).
Courbet had a profound affection for the countryside, and a strong sense of his own family history, which was deeply rooted in a sense of rural tradition. In this painting, which shows a rider taking a gentle stroll through the parkland at Rochemont, the Baudry family estate, Courbet paints an unusually atmospheric scene: the emphasis is not only, like in many of his landscapes, on the physicality of trees or rocks, but also on the soft, dappled light, which draws the viewer into the painting, and brings it close to the dreamier landscapes of Courbet's contemporary, Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot (fig. 1). Nature here is a revitalising refuge, and the painting conveys the sense of ease and comfort that Courbet felt during his long stay at Rochemont (fig. 2).
Baudry records (quoted in Bonniot, op. cit.) that the painting was inspired by a lunch party that he hosted in honour of a Parisian theatre troupe. The occasion culminated in a donkey ride, during which Courbet was thrown from his mount - a spritely donkey named Balthasar.
The authenticity of the present work has been confirmed by Jean-Jacques Fernier (copy of the certificate dated 15 September 2003) and by Sarah Faunce (copy of a letter dated 13 August 2003).