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The Fishing Boat

1865
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 812

Courbet painted this work during an intensely productive visit to Trouville with James McNeill Whistler from September until November 1865; in a letter to his father, the artist boasted that he had executed "thirty-five paintings" in a very short time, which "stunned everybody." In his choice of subject, Courbet followed in the wake of Eugène Isabey, Johan Barthold Jongkind, and Eugène Boudin; but unlike many of the canvases executed at the time, this fishing boat, rigged and filled with equipment, is the focus of the composition rather than a subordinate element. In 1899, this became the first work by Courbet to enter the Museum’s collection.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: The Fishing Boat
  • Artist: Gustave Courbet (French, Ornans 1819–1877 La Tour-de-Peilz)
  • Date: 1865
  • Medium: Oil on canvas
  • Dimensions: 25 1/2 x 32 in. (64.8 x 81.3 cm)
  • Classification: Paintings
  • Credit Line: Gift of Mary Goldenberg, 1899
  • Object Number: 99.11.3
  • Curatorial Department: European Paintings

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Self-Portrait, Gustave Courbet French, Conté crayon
Self-Portrait
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Young Communards in Prison (Les Fédérés à la Conciergerie), Gustave Courbet French, Black chalk, stumped
Young Communards in Prison (Les Fédérés à la Conciergerie)
Gustave Courbet
1871
Man with Upraised Arm, Possibly a Self-Portrait , Gustave Courbet French, Black and white chalk over graphite on papier bleuté, relined.

Man with Upraised Arm, Possibly a Self-Portrait

Gustave Courbet
ca. 1840
Apples, Gustave Courbet French, Oil on canvas
Apples
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A Brook in the Forest, Gustave Courbet French, Oil on canvas
A Brook in the Forest
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