Gustave Courbet, "When I'm No Longer Controversial, I Will No Longer Be Important"
A self portrait by Gustave Courbet Something about Courbet reminds me strongly of my own struggles to pursue creative works. I've not known much about him before my visit to the Met Museum. And I'm writing down these thoughts months after I dashed one weekend to make it to the last day of this Courbet exhibit at the Met, even just by myself (and I never felt so gratified, after I read about him on a catalogue from an art magazine). He certainly has been a trailblazer during his time, but you'd see his works pale in comparison with what we see and take for granted these days!! He was not among those artists based in the main city, which was Paris then (even perhaps up to now). He was proud of his social background which I understand was "middle class" during that period, his local culture which looked like very rural compared to the very urban Paris at that time, and his art of which he has proven he's got the abilities and strength to see thru the completi