Gustave Courbet

Jean Désiré Gustave Courbet was a French painter who led the Realism movement in 19th-century French painting. Committed to painting only what he could see, he rejected academic convention and the Romanticism of the previous generation of visual artists. His independence set an example that was important to later artists, such as the Impressionists and the Cubists. Courbet occupies an important place in 19th-century French painting as an innovator and as an artist willing to make bold social statements through his work.

10 June 1819

Born on the same birth day (10 June): Aaron Davey • Anderson Bigode Herzer • Bruno Ngotty • Emperor Uda • Flesh-n-Bone • Garry Hynes • Gina Gershon • Jessica DiCicco • Moya Greene • Rafael Leão • Rahul Bajaj • Ze'ev Friedman

Born in the same month (June 1819): Abner Doubleday • Anton Anderledy • Charles Kingsley • Francis V, Duke of Modena • Henry Gardner • Johan Jongkind • John Couch Adams • Magdalene Thoresen • Thomas Dunn English