Gustave Courbet, A Burial at Ornans, 1849-50

Gustave Courbet was at the forefront of the Realist movement in 19th century France.  Two of his major influences were the Dutch Masters (namely Rembrandt), who painted the world around them with a low degree of editing, as well as the 1830 invention of photography (which pushed painting to address what the camera couldn't).  Courbet was a very original thinker whose paintings scandalized Paris on numerous occasions. 

Courbet's painting A Burial at Ornans (1849-50) was shown in the Paris Salon of 1850-51 to ardent mixed reviews (one claimed him to be deliberately creating ugliness).  The huge (10x22') canvas depicts the rural funeral of Courbet's uncle.  The models for the painting are the actual townspeople, in the raw.  Putting this "insignificant" moment on such a large canvas, and to show it at the Paris Salon, was unheard of.  Paintings of this scale had previously been reserved for royalty or grand history paintings.  Courbet himself was very aware of the groundbreaking nature of the painting; he said, "The Burial at Ornans was in reality the burial of Romanticism."

Art:

Musée d'Orsay, Paris