Bonjour, Monsieur Courbet!

Book excerpt: Some of the most iconic and influential images of nineteenth-century French painting, including Gustave Courbet's famous The Meeting ("Bonjour, Monsieur Courbet!"), highlight the celebrated Bruyas Collection from the Musée Fabre in Montpellier. With tastes ranging from romanticism to realism, Alfred Bruyas (1821-1877) collected both traditional and what was then avant-garde art. Featuring nine masterpieces by Courbet, as well as important painting, drawings, and sculptures by such leading artists of the period as Delacroix, Ingres, Géricault, Millet, Corot, Rousseau, and Barye, this book examines Bruyas's role as one of the foremost collectors of contemporary art in France, and the significance of his patronage of living artists.