courbet origin of the world

GUSTAVE COURBET Origin of the World ( Female Genitalia)
(Salamander)

“I have always wished to draw from the accumulated wisdom of tradition, a reasoned independent sentiment of my own individuality.

To know in order to do…. To be able to
Translate the habits, the ideas, and the aspects of my epoch according

To my understanding, to be not only a
Painter but a MAN, in a word to make a
Living art that is my AIM “

Gustave Courbet
Socialists , Realist, Painter
1819-1877


The most controversial and perhaps the greatest work of a French Socialist, Realist, Painter Origin of the World, Oil on canvass painted on 18.66 measuring approximately 46 cm x 55 cm (18.1 x 21.7 inches)

A naked woman lying down in an erotic pose. The female genitalia sparked the controversy. A closer look at the painting, one can detect that the image showed guiless and candid, yet he allowed people to fantasize to explore and to interpret.

He painted with flesh, and the painting have the texture of the flesh, smooth at times like marble or pulled dragged, like an old tar. From gloominess he drew interests, in pain bliss, in violence peace .he portray this varied experience by combining rich colour and luscious handling of paint with imagery that appear both sensuous and mysterious.

The image contains a luxury for the senses. It could be an expression of Eroticism, abstract illusion, or it could draw visual excitement that could awaken the figment of our imagination, that would probably leads us to decisive changes in our sexual attitudes.

Courbet glorifies women genitalia, manifesting eroticism, But also appreciating the Erotic in the miraculous beauty of the Female Body. Sensuousness’ is present in everything he touched. His painting requires the beating of the Heart, strength of Character, and the Genitals no less than the mind.

His painting attacks the physical senses in the brief of the moment and with precision that is closest, innermost, honest, unabated and unselfish. He does not destroy something so much as savour, the world; He is evoking, to reveal the Truth, the inner mysteries of the female genitalia.

The craving for His subjects, for Life, manifest on this painting. But we can discern His profound respect .He conveyed only what is essential. “ Imagination in Art “ and allow our thoughts to flow through the realm of our senses and sensuality, with an implicit vulnerability an awareness that leaves the center of a Female Genitalia. Like the “World that is yet to be explored “