Gustave Courbet: The Desperate Man (1843–45)

(Private Collection)

A painting by the French artist Gustave Courbet (1819 – 1877). A young man man who is tearing his hair with his hands and with wide open eyes looks directly the viewer. This piece is a self-portrait of Courbet who created several portraits for friends and clients in the 1840s. Courbet was very attached to this painting and took it with him to Switzerland in 1873 when he went into self-imposed exile for his involvement with the Paris Commune (a radical socialist and revolutionary government that ruled Paris from 28 March to 28 May 1871). Painting from 1843-1845.