L'origine Du Monde, Courbet

Abstract

L'Origine du monde is an oil painting realized by Courbet in 1866. It may be the most controversial piece of art that the famous artist has ever presented. Consisting of a 46x55 centimeters close up on a woman's genitals, the picture makes all the conventions shatter and gets any audience uncomfortable.

This essay first explores the historical trajectory of L'Origine du monde, from its origins to its rediscovery since 1995. The painting results from Courbet's imaginary as well as a precise historical context: the era of the Second Empire was indeed characterized by its interest for nude and erotic painting, what encouraged Courbet to revitalize in his realistic manner this kind of practicing art. Considered as scandalous, the picture has remained hidden during almost one century until its being given to the Orsay Museum, which the piece of art enters on the 26th June 1995.

Turning to a more precise analysis of the painting, the essay then emphasizes its ambiguity: although the aim of the painter was to represent the reality of a woman body, trying to reach objectiveness, there is also a will to make the audience react, mind about his relation to nudity. Therefore, the paper leans upon the taxonomy of nudity vs. nakedness in order to understand the peculiar subject of this painting.

The last issue the paper deals with is the question of genders in L'Origine du monde. Lots of artists have included Courbet's painting in their artwork. A case in point of this broad reinterpretation is Orlan's photograph entitled War's Origin: Orlan took the same disposition up for its picture as Courbet's one but represented a man's genitals instead. By the play on words between both titles, she makes L'Origine du monde enter the gender debate, using nudity as a weapon and genitals as witnesses.

Introduction

The gender debate highlights the difficulty to get over the biologics and give a social definition of woman. The status of women artists and broadly talking the relation between art and women are some quite good indicators of these difficulties. They help revealing the huge evolution which art has experienced over one century regarding the feminine gender.

Since feminist movements rose in modern societies during the seventies, it seems like women have tried to get rid of the taboos around their body. Although they were meant to protect decency, the sense of modesty has in fact prevented any social evolution of the status of woman and any changing in the social perception of her body.

Dealing with this issue one hundred years before it becomes one of the main topics of public debate, Courbet painted L'Origine du monde in 1866. Consisting of a 46x55 centimeters close up on a woman's genitals, the picture makes all the conventions shatter and gets any audience uncomfortable, what may explain the chaotic history of this piece of art. We may therefore wonder what Courbet's intents were by choosing to bring such a provocative picture to the fore. In which debate did he want his work to take part? What is the current role of L'Origine du monde in the gender show?

I. L'Origine du monde : a time bomb...

1. The painting genesis

How did Courbet come to this piece of art? This has been the big questioning since Courbet has painted it in secret in the 1860s.

Several previous pictures had yet announced the tone of what would be named much later L'Origine du monde. A case in point is the painting Paresse et Luxure, also dated from 1866, where the artist stages two women making love. We could also quote Les Baigneuses painted in 1853 that shows a naked fat woman coming out of the water, with all her rolls of fat and her smudged feet. Courbet has a real fascination for woman's body which he aim at representing with no effect, in his natural - and to him beautiful - state.

To realize its close up, the painter surely got inspirited from pornographic photographs which were becoming more and more numerous at that time. He also brought his imaginative world in: Courbet spent his whole childhood in the mountains of the Jura, and L'Origine du monde presents a troubling likeness with a drawing he had realized in his youth of the entry of La Dame verte cave. The same disposition, close colors, all these factors contribute to make woman's genitals become fascinating and schemer, like this cave that used to fill Courbet's dreams in.

2. The historical context

At the time Courbet painted L'Origine du Monde, nudity was a fashionable topic. The audience was keen of "vaguely erotic pieces of art provided they were idealized, [...] almost immaterial." Thus many artists who represented nudity and exhibited their paintings at the Salon des representations became famous and obtained a great recognition for their work. Among these, considered nowadays as academic or even classical, let's quote Alexandre Cabanel and his painting entitled La Naissance de Vénus. It represents a naked woman surrendered by a few putti who is having an orgasm. Though, due to the mythological topic, this piece of art has not been considered as scandalous at the time it has been presented, in 1863.

This is precisely what Courbet rejects. To his mind, this way of painting women's body is hypocritical. His ultimate goal is to get as close as possible from reality, and not to conform to the classic rules. The way he paints fleshes is therefore interesting: he gives them a crude consistency and bright colors.

3. The exile until 1995

In 1864, Vénus et Psyché a previous painting from Courbet was refused at the Salon because of its "indecency". This do show that the audience could not have appreciated L'Origine du monde: people would have simply rejected it without trying to understand its message. That's why Courbet kept his work hidden until his death. Concealed behind a green tapestry, he showed it to some rare and privileged visitors, which he considered as able to understand the artistic intents behind genitals.

The piece of art has ever since had a chaotic story: going from owner to owner, the painting remains reserved to a restricted circle of initiates. A roman has even been published that tells the whole story of the piece of art: Le roman de l'Origine by Bernard Teyssèdre. It ends with the entry of L'Origine du monde, in Orsay museum on the 26th, June 1995.

In a nutshell, the painting has experienced a long exile from its being realized in secret to