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| The Stone Breakers | |
|---|---|
| French: Les Casseurs de pierres | |
 Les Casseurs de pierres | |
| Artist | Gustave Courbet |
| Year | 1849 |
| Medium | Oil-on-canvas |
| Movement | Realism (arts) |
| Subject | Work |
| Dimensions | 1.5 m × 2.6 m (4.9 ft × 8.5 ft) |
| Condition | Destroyed in bombing |
| Location | Dresden Museum until 1945, Dresden |
The Stone Breakers (French: Les Casseurs de pierres) was an 1849 oil-on-canvas painting by the French painter Gustave Courbet. The painting was an example of realism and it portrayed an old man and a young man breaking rocks. The two men were meant to represent common workers doing menial tasks. They are shown in tattered clothing and their faces are turned away from the viewer.
The painting was displayed at the 1850 Paris salon and it was criticized by many reviewers for its depiction of a subject which was not considered proper for high art. Additionally some critics disliked the application of very thick paint, and the poor lighting in the image. Conversely, social theorist Pierre-Joseph Proudhon praised the painting and saw it as a successful socialist painting. He called the painting "a masterpiece in its genre".
It is believed that Courbet created two versions of the painting. The version which was displayed at the 1850 Paris Salon was in the collection of the Dresden Museum. When the museum acquired the painting it was referred to as "Courbet's monumental masterpiece". In February of 1945 the city of Dresden was relentlessly bombed by the Allies of World War II. The Germans decided to relocate the painting and it was subsequently destroyed in a bombing while being moved by truck during World War II. The other version survived the war. The second version is a reversed image and it is in the Oskar Reinhart Collection in Winterthur, Switzerland.
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Gustave Courbet began work on the painting in November of 1849 after seeing two laborers breaking rocks along the road. Near the end of November 1849 Courbet sent a letter to his friends Francis and Marie Wey describing how he found inspiration for the painting:[1]
I had taken our carriage to go to the Château of Saint-Denis to paint a landscape. Near Maisières I stopped to consider two men breaking stones on the road. One rarely encounters the most complete expression of poverty, so right there on the spot I got an idea for a painting. I made a date to meet them at my studio the following morning. And since then I have painted my picture.
He went on to describe the clothing of the two peasants as representative of their low station. He also had sympathy for the two stone breakers and in letters he indicated that he was aware of the dichotomy of classes. In describing the older worker he used the French word courbé (bent), which may have been a pun on his own last name (Courbet).[1]
The Stone Breakers was first exhibited at the Paris Salon of 1850–1851. As a work of realism the subject matter addressed a scene of everyday life. The painting was meant to depict the hard labor that poor citizens experienced.[2] Courbet created two versions of the painting.[3]
The second version of the painting is a mirror image and it is in the Oskar Reinhart Collection in Winterthur, Switzerland. Courbet signed it in the lower right corner. The second version is much smaller, measuring 56 cm × 85 cm (22 in × 33 in), and it is much darker.[4]
In c. 1864 Courbet created a drawing of the younger person portrayed in The Stone Breakers. The drawing is titled, A young stone breaker. It is a black crayon sketch on white paper and it is 29.5 cm × 21.1 cm (11.6 in × 8.3 in). The sketch is in the Ashmolean Museum at the University of Oxford. It is not on display.[5] The National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C., also has a similar image of the young stone breaker. The image is attributed to Firmin Gillot and Gustave Courbet and it is from the René Huyghe collection. The dimensions of the work are 30.1 cm × 23.1 cm (11.9 in × 9.1 in).[6]
In a letter Courbet described the painting as being the same size as his other painting (A Burial At Ornans) which was also displayed at the Paris Salon. The size of that painting was 1.5 m × 2.6 m (4.9 ft × 8.5 ft).[3] The painting is in the realism style, and depicted two peasants (a young man and an old man) breaking rocks.[7] The men are shown as two road laborers in unclean clothing. They wear wooden clogs which the press of the day satirized.[8] The men in tattered clothing represented the oppressed workers who toiled breaking rocks. The painting might have caused viewers to feel uneasy because the men had tools and rocks which may be considered weapons. Courbet may have also encouraged the uneasiness by not showing the faces of the two men.[9] The men's faces are likely not shown because they serve as representatives of the common workers. The figures in the painting perform repetitive menial labor and they demonstrate the injustice of peasant life.[3]
Courbet described the painting by saying:[1]
On one side is an old man of seventy, bent over his work, his sledgehammer raised, his skin parched by the sun, his head shaded by a straw hat; his trousers of coarse material, are completely patched; and in his cracked sabots you can see his bare heels sticking out of socks that were once blue. On the other side is a young man with swarthy skin, his head covered with dust; his disgusting shirt all in tatters reveals his arms and parts of his back; a leather suspender holds up what is left of his trousers, and his mud caked leather boots show gaping holes at every side.
Before the Paris Salon French poet Max Buchon viewed the painting and described the two men as "the dawn and twilight of modern galley-slave existence". After the 1850 Paris Salon French diplomat Louis de Geofroy described the sentiment by saying, "art that is made for everyone should be what everyone sees." L'Illustration also published a review of the painting from the Paris Salon and they described it as, "a subject with very little appeal." They went on to describe the painting as not treating the subjects with importance and not having appropriate lighting. Fabien Pillet reviewed the painting for Le Moniteur Universel and he stated that Courbet should be counted among the painters "who reveal a marked predilection for the least civilized of rustic customs and habits."[1] Some art critics made remarks about the careless thick paint applied by palette knife and others thought the paint thickness conveyed ruggedness. Many critics conveyed the idea that the subject of the painting was not proper for high art.[3]
French social theorist Pierre-Joseph Proudhon called the painting "a masterpiece in its genre". He saw the painting as "a visual condemnation of capitalism and potential for greed". Courbet stated that the subject had to do with his interest in "real and existing things".[2] He went on to say that it was a successful "socialist painting".[1] Art historian Sheila D. Muller has compared the painting's impact with that of Passing Mother's Grave because of the "monumental treatment of the commonplace".[10] In 2009, art historian Kathryn Calley Galitz said, "The Stone Breakers ... challenged convention by rendering scenes from daily life on the large scale previously reserved for history painting and in an emphatically realistic style."[11]
Before World War II the one version of the painting was housed at the Dresden Museum.[12] The painting was acquired by the museum c. 1882 and it was referred to as "Courbet's monumental masterpiece."[13] During World War II, from February 13 to 15, 1945, the Allies continuously bombed the city of Dresden, Germany. German troops hastily loaded artworks from Dresden's galleries and museums onto trucks. The Stone Breakers was destroyed, along with 153 other paintings, when a transport vehicle moving the pictures to the Königstein Fortress, near Dresden, was bombed by Allied forces.[11]
