Masterpiece in the spotlight

Masterpiece in the spotlight
We turn the spotlight on a work from the permanent collection for you every month.

May 2012

Courbet added the words ‘Ste Pélagie’ to this still life with over-ripe apples in a landscape. This was the name of the prison where he spent six months as a political prisoner from September 1871 onwards.

Courbet had been arrested for the active role he played in the revolutionary government that took over Paris, the “Commune de Paris”, during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871. From the prison, he complained that even though he had permission to paint, there was little he could do without a model. His sister Zoé brought him fruit and flowers so that he could make still lifes.

These red and yellow apples are not presented in a beautiful dish; they are lying outside on the ground. Courbet painted them as a scattering of windfall apples in a dark landscape. The fruit is rotten in places and it is thought that this is a reference to the mental and social harm suffered by the artist during his time in prison.

Courbet did indeed exploit the fact that he had been imprisoned for political reasons. He managed to benefit financially from his image as a revolutionary. The paintings made by Courbet in Sainte Pélagie were very much sought after by his political allies. So he put the name of the prison and the date ’71 on a few still lifes that he made after being released in 1872. This painting, which Mesdag bought in 1886, is a prime example of one of these antedated works.