Painting is the representation of visible forms. The essence of realism is its negation of the ideal.

About Gustave Courbet

Jean Désiré Gustave Courbet (UK: KOOR-bay; US: koor-BAY; French: [ɡystav kuʁbɛ]; 10 June 1819 – 31 December 1877) 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...