"Self-Portrait at Sainte-Pélagie"

Gustave Courbet - Oil
Courbet's commitment to politics led to a period of imprisonment. He immortalized this part of his life in Self-Portrait at Sainte-Pélagie. Immediately after his arrest in June 1871, he was accused of having taken part in the Paris Commune, the last of the nineteenth-century revolutions in France. During his trial, Courbet was accused of having taken part in the destruction of the colonne Vendôme, which had been erected by Napoleon I to commemorate the victories of the Grande Armée. Found guilty in 1871, Courbet found himself worse off again after his appeal in 1874. In Self-Portrait at Sainte-Pélagie, Courbet presents himself in the cell of his Paris prison, seated on a table, near a half-open window somewhat obstructed by the solid prison bars. He is simply dressed, wearing a chestnut suit and a beret, his red neck-scarf the only note of colour in this dark-toned painting. His pipe is, as always, in his mouth and his mainly impassive stare is directed, with perhaps a touch of nostalgia, toward the prison yard.