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polity french second republicconcept:era modern

The Stone Breakers

Oil on canvas (1849) by Gustave Courbet, depicting two peasant labourers breaking stones on a roadside near Ornans, Franche-Comté. First exhibited at the Salon of 1850–51; hailed as the programmatic declaration of French Realism. DESTROYED in Dresden, 13 February 1945, during Allied firebombing. Known only through photographs and Courbet's own writings.

Scholarly Significance

Anchor French Realism with Courbet's The Stone Breakers (1849), the founding manifesto of Realist painting — now destroyed, making it a paradigmatic case of art historical loss.

Notes

  • ·Courbet encountered the two actual stone breakers on a road near Maizières, outside Ornans, in 1848; he immediately decided to paint them life-size.
  • ·The work depicted an old man (too old for heavy labour, still working) and a boy (too young for heavy labour, already working) — a deliberate comment on poverty and the absence of social mobility.
  • ·Courbet wrote to his friend Francis Wey (26 November 1849): 'In our so-called civilised society it is necessary for me to lead a life of barbarism... I paint them as they are.'
  • ·First exhibited at the Salon of 1850–51, alongside Burial at Ornans and other major works that announced Courbet's Realist programme.
  • ·The original canvas (165 × 257 cm) was destroyed in the firebombing of Dresden, 13–14 February 1945, while in the Gemäldegalerie.
  • ·Known today through a black-and-white photograph by Étienne Neurdein and a colour photograph taken before 1939.
  • ·Dimensions: approximately 165 × 257 cm (known from exhibition records).