Sleeping Woman
Gustave Courbet, the bad boy of the 19th-century art world, paints a woman completely lost in slumber. Unlike the stiff, idealized goddesses of the time, this figure is refreshingly real—her body is soft and fleshy, her curly hair a messy halo against the dark pillows. The heavy drapery above creates a cozy, enclosed space, as if we are peeking into a secret boudoir. Courbet was famous for scandalizing the Paris Salon with his 'vulgar' realism, often painting sleeping nudes because, as he put it, sleep is the state where we are most truly ourselves.
- Technique
- Oil on canvas
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