Courbet’s Grotto of Sarrazine near Nans-sous-Sainte-Anne

Acquired by the Getty in 2004, Gustave Courbet’s Grotto of Sarrazine near Nans-sous- Sainte-Anne (1864) is one of the artist’s finest landscapes and a vivid example of his contribution to the history of modern painting.

In his radical approach to technique and composition, Courbet rejected the refined style of French academic painting and its rigid parameters for subject matter. Grotto of Sarrazine near Nans-sous-Sainte-Anne demonstrates Courbet's challenge to tradition Grotto of Sarrazine near Nans-sous-Sainte-Anne through the artist's bold application of paint Gustave Courbet (French, 1819–1877) and dynamic composition. Franche-Comté region, about 1864 Oil on canvas During the 1860s, Courbet often painted caves and similar sites near his home in a mountainous region near Switzerland. The Sarrazine grotto's craggy surfaces and its geological evolution are suggested in his technique. Working in stages with brushes and palette knives, Courbet built up and scraped away paint, working drying pigment into the wet surface. The painting's composition is radically modern, because the artist's perspective appears both near and far. Up close, the cave's natural colors—greens, ochers, browns, whites—and details, such as manmade scaffolding, are singled out. Yet the artist stepped back enough to capture the cave's curving, all-encompassing structure. Courbet's landscapes bridge the work of Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot and Claude Monet. As one of a number of paintings Courbet made of caves, Grotto of Sarrazine anticipates the serial nature of Monet's late paintings, such as Wheatstacks, Snow Effect, Morning and The Portal of Rouen Cathedral in Morning Light.

Grotto of Sarrazine near Nans-sous-Sainte-Anne is on view in Courbet and the Modern Landscape, at the Getty Center, February 21–May 14, 2006. The exhibition features a carefully selected group of 47 landscapes by Courbet from public and private collections around the world. It is the first major exhibition to address Courbet’s pivotal achievements in landscape painting, which influenced generations of artists. Courbet and the Modern Landscape is the Getty’s winter Premiere Presentation and one of the most important shows of the year. The exhibition will travel to the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston (June 18–September 10, 2006) and the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore (October 15, 2006–January 7, 2007) following its Los Angeles debut.