River and Rocks is an oil on canvas painting created by Gustave Courbet between 1873 and 1877. This powerful, late-career landscape captures an intimate and rugged view of a river environment. The composition emphasizes the material substance of nature, focusing intensely on the interplay between the fast-moving water and the heavily textured rocks that dominate the foreground. Courbet’s technique, defined by thick, often impasto application of oil paint, lends a tactile immediacy to the canvas, highlighting the raw energy inherent in the scene.
This work exemplifies the Realist painter’s devotion to depicting the physical world without idealization, a characteristic hallmark of the Landscapes he created during his final years. The period of execution corresponds to Courbet’s self-imposed exile in Switzerland following the fallout of the Paris Commune. Many of the paintings from this time reflect the dense, mountainous terrain of the Jura region, providing a somber majesty to his nature studies.
As a crucial example of the shift toward unvarnished realism in nineteenth-century French art, this piece remains a significant object of study. The work currently resides within the esteemed collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Because of the age and prominence of this seminal painting, high-resolution images of River and Rocks are frequently available in the public domain, enabling widespread access for academic use and the creation of fine art prints.
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