Courbet was arrested for his alleged role in the destruction of the Vendôme Column following the defeat of the Paris Commune in June 1871. He was initially jailed in the Conciergerie, where he must have executed this drawing showing two very young fellow prisoners in a graffiti-marked cell. He submitted the drawing for reproduction in the journal "L’Autographe" in September, perhaps aiming to solicit sympathy for the Communards facing trial. He dedicated the drawing to Léon Brigot, one of few lawyers who defended Communards, including the artist.
This artwork is meant to be viewed from right to left. Scroll left to view more.
Artwork Details
Use your arrow keys to navigate the tabs below, and your tab key to choose an item
Title:Young Communards in Prison (Les Fédérés à la Conciergerie)
Artist:Gustave Courbet (French, Ornans 1819–1877 La Tour-de-Peilz)
Date:1871
Medium:Black chalk, stumped
Dimensions:Overall: 10 3/16 x 6 1/2 in. (25.9 x 16.6 cm)
Classification:Drawings
Credit Line:Gift of Guy Wildenstein, 1999
Accession Number:1999.251
Signature: Signed in pen and brown ink, lower left: G. Courbet
Inscription: Dated and inscribed in pen and brown ink at top: "Les Federés a la Conciergerie 1871"; Dedication in pen and brown ink on attached paper (1-5/8 x 1-1/14 in.): Mon cher Bigot, je vous remercie; vous avez / parlé en homme de coeur, et, comme on dit / dans le peuple, "j'y suis allé de ma larme. / Gustave Courbet federé du procès de Versailles / 1871" Inscribed on the verso: Bircan.
Léon Bigot (French)dedicatee; perhaps connected with, L'Autographe, in which the drawing was reproduced in 1871; Private collection, France; Galerie Wildenstein
New York. Drawing Center. "The Pencil Is a Key: Drawings by Incarcerated Artists," October 11, 2019–January 5, 2020.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Selections from the Department of Drawings and Prints: Revolution, Resistance, and Activism," July 29, 2021–January 17, 2022.
Fernier 65
"[Notice]" in L'Autographe. l'Autographe, Paris, September 9, 1871, p. 19.
Gazzette des Beaux-Arts. Gazette des Beaux-Arts, May, 1908, p. 426.
Théodore Duret Courbet. Paris, 1918, p. 138.
Louis Aragon L'Exemple de Courbet. Paris, 1952, fig. no. XXVIII, p. 63.
Robert Fernier "La vie et l'oeuvre de Gustave Courbet". vol. 2, Lausanne-Paris, 1978, cat. no. 65, pp. 308-309, ill.
Dessins Destins: Gustave Courbet 1819-1877, Gustave Curtois 1852-1923 Ex. cat., Musée Maison Natale. Ornans, 1982, cat. no. 41, ill.
Carmen C. Bambach, Colta Ives, Nadine Orenstein, Michiel C. Plomp, Perrin Stein "Recent Acquisitions, A Selection: 1999-2000." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, vol. 58, no. 20, Fall 2000, p. 47, ill.
Claire Gilman, Rosario Güiraldes, Laura Hoptman, Isabella Kapur, Duncan Tomlin, Courtenay Finn, Nicole R. Fleetwood, Valérie Rousseau The Pencil is a Key: Drawings by Incarcerated Artists: Drawing Papers 140. Ex. cat., The Drawing Center, New York, October 11, 2019-January 5, 2020, Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland, June 5, 2020-September 6, 2020. The Drawing Center, 2019, pp. 30-31, 137, ill.
Niklaus Manuel Güdel Gustave Courbet: Les Dessins. Paris, 2019, cat. no. 117, pp. 296-297 and 364, ill.
The Met's Libraries and Research Centers provide unparalleled resources for research and welcome an international community of students and scholars.
The Met Collection API is where all makers, creators, researchers, and dreamers can connect to the most up-to-date data and public domain images for The Met collection. Open Access data and public domain images are available for unrestricted commercial and noncommercial use without permission or fee.
Feedback
We continue to research and examine historical and cultural context for objects in The Met collection. If you have comments or questions about this object record, please complete and submit this form. The Museum looks forward to receiving your comments.
The Met's collection of drawings and prints—one of the most comprehensive and distinguished of its kind in the world—began with a gift of 670 works from Cornelius Vanderbilt, a Museum trustee, in 1880.