SYMHC Classics: Gustave Courbet

Guaranteed Human. A win is a win. A win is a win.

I don't care what you're saying.

“Yep, that's me, Clifford Taylor the fourth.”

You might have seen the skits, my basketball and college football journey, or my career in sports media. Well, now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifford Show.

This is a place for raw, unfiltered conversations with athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. So let's get to it.

Listen to the Clifford Show on the I-Heart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow @ Clifford and @ TikTok podcast and network on TikTok. This week on the SportsLice Podcast,

it's all about the NFL draft. And we've got a special guest. The director of the NFL's East-Sway Shrine Bull, Eric Galpo, joins the SportsLice Podcast to break down what really matters when evaluating draft prospects.

From hitting traits teams look for to the biggest mistakes franchises make to the players flying under the radar. This is the insight you won't hear anywhere else.

“If you want to understand the draft like an insider,”

you don't want to miss this episode. Listen to the SportsLice Podcast on the I-Heart Radio app, Apple Podcast, wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow @ TimboSlicelife12 and @ TikTok podcast network on @ TikTok.

When a group of women discover they've all dated the same prolific con artist. They take matters into their own hands. I vowed I will be his last target. He is not going to get away with this.

He's going to get what he deserves.

We always say that trust your girlfriends.

(upbeat music) Listen to the girlfriends. Trust me, babe. On the I-Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or whatever you get your podcast.

(upbeat music) What's up, everyone? I'm EcoBoat, and my next guest, it's Will Ferrell. Woo woo woo woo woo woo. My dad gave me the best advice ever.

He goes, "Just give it a shot." But if you ever reach a point where you're banging your head against the wall and it doesn't feel funny more, it's okay to quit. If you saw it written down,

it would not be an inspiration. It would not be on a calendar. (laughing) You know, the cat just hang in there. Yeah, it would not be.

Right, it wouldn't be that. There's a lot in love. (laughing) Listen to things, dad, on the I-Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

(upbeat music) - Happy Saturday, since this week's episodes on Peter Krapat Kim brought up the Paris Commune, we've picked today's classic with that as a connecting point.

We are talking about French artist Gustav Kobay. - Bad, the start of this episode, we talk about whether I had watched what we do in the shadows, and I can now update my answer to yes, I have watched all of it.

Oh, so good. This originally came out July 25th, 2022, enjoy. (upbeat music) - Welcome to Stuff You Missed In History class, a production of I-Heart Radio.

(upbeat music) - Hello and welcome to the podcast, I'm Holly Fry. And I'm Tracy V. Wilson.

Tracy, I don't know why I've never asked you this before.

Do you watch what we do in the shadows? I intend to watch what we do in the shadows. There's just too much, there's too much stuff to watch right now. - There is way too much, I won't shade anybody ever for not keeping up with something because who can,

I'm scared of the person that keeps over everything. But the opening credits of what we do in the shadows has a series of amazing spoofs of famous and not-so-famous pieces of art with the characters from the show painted into them

as though they have been around for hundreds and hundreds of years because they are vampires. Almost every piece of art will talk about some variations is actually based on an existing piece of art. Art art, it's such good stuff.

Two of those pieces are based on the work of Gustav Corbe. (laughing) I really have wanted to talk about him anyway and that was a good entree because I love that show.

“It is just starting its fourth season, I think,”

as we publish this episode, it should be out already and it's so fun, obviously not for all ages. It's a very grown-up show, but with adult themes. Similarly, this episode, I will warn you at one point we are going to talk about a painting that is pretty graphic

and explicit, if you have younger art historians or art enthusiasts with you, I mean, you might want to preview it just for safety. I don't know how you feel about it, everybody's got a different threshold.

But Corbe was iconic, even in his own lifetime. He flew in the face of artistic convention. He turned down awards.

He was kind of like the bad boy of mid-19th century

Paris art scene.

“And he also became embroiled in the country's political turmoil.”

So that is who we were talking about today. Jean-Dessire Gustave Corbe was born on June 10th, 1819 in the small town of Ornau, France. This is in the east of France, not far from the border with Switzerland.

His parents were Regie and Sylvie Udo Corbe. And Regie is sometimes described as a farmer. But to be clear, he was a very successful farmer. This wasn't like a small family farm. He wasn't doing farm work on somebody else's farm.

He had a large-scale multi-property commercial farm

that included some really lucrative vineyards. Gustave also had three younger sisters, Zoe Zellie and Juliet. And these daughters appeared in a lot of their brothers' paintings. Yeah, he liked to paint his friends and family in paintings,

“as well as himself, which we'll talk about.”

After his early schooling, Gustave enrolled at the College Royale and then attended a fine art school in Bezansong. His proclivity toward becoming an artist wasn't really in line with what his parents had in mind for him. They wanted him to pursue a career in law.

So when he was in his early twenties, the actual year this happened varies by source, but they sent him to Paris to study law. He did not do that. He is said to have been really very, very close to this family,

and to have truly loved his parents. We'll talk a lot about his letters home to his parents and his family, but he really just did not see any path for himself in life, but art. So when he got to Paris, he did not enroll in law school, unsurprising based on what Holly just said.

But he also didn't enroll in art school, though. He went to the Louvre and studied the art there, and also made contact with artists who lived in the city, so we could take private lessons and some cases ask them for advice. In particular, he studied with romantic painter Baron Charles Funstubin,

and finally confessed all of this to his father.

He said he could not be a lawyer. He only wanted to be an artist. His father's response was surprising and incredibly supportive. He wrote to his son, quote, "If anyone gives up, it will be you, not me." He assured his son that he would support his ambitions, both emotionally and financially,

and that he would fell off everything he had if it came to that.

“I don't think that's what he was expecting of his father.”

So, Kurbe with his father's blessing at this point started pursuing an art career in earnest. He wrote to his parents, quote, "Within five years, I must have a reputation in Paris." But he still did not enroll at any formal school. Instead, he was largely self-taught, and his development was based largely on copying, works of famous artists, something a lot of artists did, and still do,

to gain technical skills and form their own style. He also, as we said, took some private lessons. And he started submitting his original works to the Academy Dibbozao, and he was so long exhibit. And in 1844, just a few years into this effort, one of his paintings was accepted.

That painting was Kurbe with a black dog or self-portrait with a black dog. This is not a close-up portrait, but a full view of the subject. That, of course, is Kurbe himself, obviously. He's seated with his entire body included. And it's interesting because Kurbe appears to be sitting on the ground with an English

spaniel standing partially on his lap. But the point of view of the viewer is even lower down in the subject, close to the ground. So, Kurbe appears to be looking down. He has on a hat that has upper face and shadow and a drapey coat that's flipped open at his leg to reveal a yellow lining.

Kurbe wrote to his family of the acceptance of this painting, saying, quote, "I have been admitted to the exhibition and I'm highly delighted. It is not the picture I should have preferred them to take, but it makes no matter. They did me the honor of hanging me well in the exhibition, and that is some compensation." The following year, 1845, Kurbe spurred on by his success, submitted five works for

consideration for the salon, but only one small one was accepted. That's Legitaclero, and it features a man in an almost reverse image of the black dog portrait from the previous year we just described. Once again, seated on the ground, but this time, no dog and his lap he's cradling a guitar. This is a very romantic image, harkening to an earlier time period, and although it's not categorized

as a self-portrait, Kurbe, pretty obviously used himself as a model. Kurbe continued to submit pieces for the salon in the years after this, but his success rate came and dropped off and was pretty low, but he remained undaunted. He was a very confident person.

paint, and he continued to envision and plan his place in the art world.

“Even in these early years of his career, Gustav was really shrewd about crafting his image”

with the public and with the art community, though he had come from a wealthy family, and he received a good education, because he came from the country. Preisions often assumed he was just an uneducated peasant. He was totally happy to let people do that, because he knew it added to his mystique as a painter. He saw every opportunity to like build his life story in a way that would increase interest in his work. We'll talk about one later on that it's a little mind-blowing

to me. One of the paintings that Kurbe worked on starting in the 1840s was one called the wounded man. This was another image of the artist himself. This time in the romantic role of a man reclining with his eyes closed, having suffered an injury presumably from a sword. This is a painting that is often listed as having started in the 1840s and being finished in the

“1850s. He didn't normally take that long to make a painting, but it wasn't considered finished until”

then, because Kurbe altered it significantly at one point. The hero in the image had been accompanied by a woman leaning over his shoulder. She was, it is believed based on virginy bine, who modeled for a lot of paintings for Kurbe during a roughly 10-year long romantic relationship. The two of them were not married, but they lived together as a couple. To all outward appearances, they were as committed as a married couple. They had a son together named Desiree Alfred Emil.

But in the early 1950s, virginy moved away from Paris when she and Kurbe broke up, and she took their child with her, and it seems that she and Kurbe had no contact after the breakup. And Kurbe had then painted her out of the wounded man, and he placed a sword in her place in the painting. If you look at it, it does look a little weird. It's not bad. It's just a strange. It doesn't

“feel like that was part of the original composition. He did not, after this, have any long-term”

serious relationships, although there were a lot of women in his life. He kind of just enjoyed playing the field that seems. He wrote to a friend of his relationships with women, quote, "I am as inclined to get married as I am to hang myself." Kurbe's relationship with the salon waxed and waned in the late 1840s. He went from that elation of having felt that his work was well placed and that he was just getting started. He went from that to a long series of setbacks,

and feeling as though he would never again gain recognition. 1847 was especially rough for him. He submitted

three paintings and all three were rejected. So we've been talking about the salon and submitting every year. And if you're wondering, why didn't he just show his art somewhere else? There really wasn't another avenue available at this time in Paris. The salon was the art show of the year, and it was the place where patrons went to purchase art and develop relationships with artists so they would have ongoing patronages in some place. Kurbe had written of it to his family, quote,

"I must exhibit to make myself known, and unfortunately that is the only exhibition." In past years, when I had not thoroughly mastered my own style and was still painting to a certain extent, in theirs, they accepted my work. But now that I am myself, there is no hope for me. Other now-famous artists were similarly despondent at the way the salon jury was running things. Several had even met to brainstorm how they might establish a new independent salon,

and that included people like Deliqua and Russo. In 1848, King Louis Philippe of France was forced

to advocate and later that year, Louis Napoleon Bonaparte became the first president of the second

French Republic. Of course, this was a huge change for the country, but for Gustav Kurbe and other artists resulted in a very significant shift in how the salon was churried and had less rigid requirements for subject matter and style. At the 1848 exhibition, he had 10 paintings accepted for showing. A lot of his paintings during this time reflected the change in France's shifting socio-political climate. At a time when voting rights were expanding for men anyway, and the

right to work was also adopted as a governmental reform. Kurbe was painting people at work in various trades. He also had the very unique insight or possibly conceits to see that he was the face of a huge change in art. He wrote to his family, quote, "I have about to make it anytime now for I am surrounded by people who are very influential in the newspapers and the arts and who are

representative in the field of painting. In a moment, we will talk about Gustav Kurbe's shift to

“painting landscapes and pastorals and how his representation of the common man became so important”

in art history, but first, we will pause for a sponsor break.

A win is a win, a win is a win. I don't care what you're talking about. Yep, that's me, Kurbe's tale of the fourth. You might have seen the skits, the reactions, my journey from basketball to college football, or my career in sports media. Well, somewhere along the way, this platform became bigger than I ever imagined. And now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Kurbeford Show. This is a place for raw,

unfiltered conversations with some of your favorite athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. One week I'll take you behind the scenes of the biggest moments in sports and entertainment, and the next we'll talk about life, mental health, purpose, and even music. The Kurbeford Show isn't just a podcast, it's a space for honest conversations,

stories that don't always get told, and for people who are chasing something bigger. So,

“if you've ever supported me or you're just chasing down a dream, this is right what you need to be.”

Listen to the Clifford Show on the I-Heart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow @Clifford, and @Tiktok Podcast Network on TikTok. This is the insight you won't hear anywhere else. If you want to understand the draft like an insider, you don't want to miss this episode. Listen to the sports-liced podcast on the I-Heart Radio app, Apple Podcast, wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow

Timbo-Sliced Life 12, and TikTok podcast network on TikTok. There's two golden rules that any man should live by.

Rule one, never mess with a country girl. He plays stupid games, you get stupid prizes.

And rule two, never mess with her friends either. We always say that trust your girlfriend's. I'm Anison Field, and in this new season of The Girl Friends. Oh my god, this is the same man. A group of women discover they've all dated the same prolific con artist. I felt like I got hit by a truck. I thought how could this happen to me. The cops didn't seem to care. So they take matters into their own hands. I said,

oh hell no, I vowed. I will be his last target. He's going to get what he deserves. Listen to The Girl Friends, trust me babe. On the I-Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. What's up everyone? I'm Angobot, and my next guest, you know from stepbrothers, anchor man, Saturday night live, and the big money players network, it's Will Ferrell. My dad gave me the best advice ever. I went and had lunch with him one day, and I was like,

“and dad, I think I want to really give this a shot. I don't know what that means, but I just know”

the groundlings. I'm working my way up through, and I know it's a place that come. Look for up and coming talent. He said, if it was based solely on talent, I wouldn't worry about you. Which is really sweet. Yeah. He goes, but there's so much lock and ball. And he's like, just give it a shot. He goes, but if you ever reach a point where you're banging your head against the wall, and it doesn't feel funny more, it's okay to quit. If you saw it written down, it would not be an

inspiration. It would not be on a calendar of, you know, the cat just hanging in there. Yeah, it would not be. Right. It wouldn't be that. There's a lot in life. Listen to thanks dad on the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. So at this point, Corbe had been in Paris for roughly a decade trying to make a name for himself. He had shifted from those romantic portraits we talked about to doing

some more different types of art, and although he've had his father's financial support, and then the support of an art collector, benefactor named Alfred Bruyah, no one could argue that he had been idle during those 10 years. He had finally earned a gold medal in the Paris salon, and that meant that he didn't have to submit his work to salon juries for exhibition going forward. So he took a little pause and he went home to ornone to spend time

with his family, and this break from life in the city really proved to be exactly what the art is needed, and being back in the countryside inspired Corbe in a whole new way.

"Lekestia de Pierre" or "The Stone Breakers." As its title suggests, this is an image of an older man

“breaking stones, and a younger man carrying a basket of broken pieces along the side of the road,”

there's an empty dark landscape behind them. This is an interesting image because not only that it come to be seen as a clear example of Corbe's desire to put realism front and center, but also shows everyday working people in vivid detail without romanticizing their lives. It was eventually recognized as raising questions about France's socio-economic structure, and that last bit is especially interesting because while most art historians today

would credit Corbe with being very deliberate about making a social statement and Corbe himself

later claimed that that was all intentional, there have definitely been some right-ups about this

work that suggested it might have been a little bit less calculated. Corbe had seen a man named

“Gajji who was a road-mender working as the artist passed by him in a carriage, and he had written”

to a friend about it, quote, "Here is an old man of 70, bending over his work with his hammer raised his body burned by the sun, his face shaded with a wide straw hat, his core stiff breeches are all patched, and his heels are showing through his stockings, which once were white in his broken old wooden shoes. Near him is a young man, his skin burned brown, his filthy ragged shirt shows his side and his arms, a last, in such low life this is the beginning and the end. Rarely can one

find so complete an expression of poverty and wretchedness. Corbe then invited Gajji to his studio

to sit for him for the painting of the stonebreakers. The second famous work that was inspired by that

trip to Ornalt was a burial at Ornalt, which he painted in 1850. This painting is massive, 315 cm by 660 cm or 21 feet by 10 feet. It depicts his great uncle's funeral. There are more than 40 people in this composition, which is very dark, which includes mourners, clergy, and family they're all gathered around an open grave. He showed this at the 1851 salon, much to the shagrin of critics. The large dimensions that Corbe had used were normally reserved for romantic subjects.

So seeing such a stark scene realistically painted on something so big, I was considered ghost and in poor taste. Even so, some critics understood the importance of this as a moment of massive change in art. One write-up said that Corbe had established himself as an artist quote in the manner of a cannon ball, which lodges itself in a wall. That's such a great description. These two pieces look so classic as pieces of art to modernize,

not to be confused with classicism. But they just look like when you look at them, you're like, yes, that seems like famous old art. It can be difficult, though, to grasp just how radical they were considered in mid-19th century France. At a time when the art world was very much about showing the beauty of all things. And indeed, we said Corbe had studied with a romantic painter but he had shifted gears and he was painting things that most people at the time would not

consider beautiful. And he was doing it with this very intense detail in what is often described as urgency. These pastoral cemented him in the eyes of the art and literature scene of France as the major player in the new realism movement. So we should level set for just a moment and talk about realism and what it means because it's easy to assume it means one thing when really it's a pretty broad term. Realism in terms of art is not necessarily about replicating a real world object

“in faithful accuracy, although it can include that. The more important foundation of it is”

depicting real things, rather than something fanciful or imagined. There are a lot of works of art that can be put under the sunbrella going all the way back to ancient Greek sculpture but the term realism didn't really come into play as an artistic school of thought until the 19th century when Corbe was alive. And the realism movement that Corbe is associated with was a rejection of the classicism and romanticism that had been the standard for French art for a very long time.

He wrote about this in a letter in 1861 in a way that makes his feelings on this matter entirely clear, writing quote, painting is an essentially concrete art and can consist only of the representation of things both real and existing. As he came to recognize that his work depicting the French

Arnon where he was born is in the province of bourgeois French compt, which is in the Eastern

“part of France, and it became the star of a lot of Corbe's work.”

When Louis Napoleon declared himself Emperor Napoleon III after staging a coup, the atmosphere for art in Paris once again shifted. Although Gustav Corbe had already been seen as controversial in his work as the government became more authoritarian and a lot more conservative in its taste, his work was perceived as being downright confrontational. His painting young ladies of the village, which shows three women, modeled by his sisters, offering alms to a young

girl who is hurting cows, was critiqued as a clumsy affront to social morays. When you look at

this painting today, you go, "Oh, that's lovely." But people were real mad about it at the time.

In 1854 Gustav started to work on a massive project, and we used massive, both literally and figuratively, the canvas of the painting, which he completed in six weeks, is 361 by 598 centimeters.

“That's 11.8 feet by 19.6 feet, so similar to the dimensions of a burial at or nom.”

But the subject matter is expansive as well. The painting is sometimes called the artist's studio or the painter's studio, but the full title is a painter's studio, a real allegory summing up seven years of my life as an artist. Corbe is the center of the painting working. It's painting a landscape of an area near or non. Behind him is what appears to be an artist's model. It's a naked woman with her dress at her feet. But he's not painting her or even looking

at her. Instead, she is closely watching him. There's also a small child watching him paint. So these three figures, Corbe, the woman in the child form the central grouping of the image and the rest of the paintings cast of characters are separated to the right and the left. The group to the left is filled with the sort of rural characters that populated much of Corbe's work. There's also a representation of the crucifixion of Christ on the left side as well, close to and kind of just behind

the left side of the painter's canvas and the images he works. On the right, our Corbe's friends and patrons, including the writer Charles Podlayer. This painting continues to be interpreted and analyzed by art history scholars. In mixing, allegory and reality, Corbe saves to have laid out a puzzle for the viewer to solve. But no one seems to agree on what exactly the meaning of the piece is. This painting was submitted for the 1855 exhibition in Paris and it was not accepted. After having

achieved a level of recognition where he had been able to place pieces in the salon without jury approval, this was just a slap in the face. Napoleon III had directed that only pleasant art to be included at the salon and the artist's studio was determined to be too demanding of the viewer. And Corbe had 11 pieces accepted for the salon. But he just took matters into his own hands to get all of his paintings in front of the eyes of the public. He rented a space near the

exposition and set up his own pavilion to showcase this huge painting as well as some other works. He called this the pavilion of realism. The pavilion of realism was not a success. Although many of his contemporaries and using Delacła in particular admired the ambition of this effort, it just wasn't well attended. The public mostly saw this as a stunt or like a really expensive tantrum. Yeah, there's one exchange. I will get it wrong because I'm just retelling it. I didn't

quote it here where there was a person who was like, this is really a lot. Like you really think

“highly of yourself and Corbe wrote back, do you not know I'm the most arrogant person in Paris?”

He was just like, it's just like, this is how it is, dude. It's all my paintings are nothing. Incidentally, it was during the 1850s when Corbe's fame was rapidly on the rise that he painted the two paintings that are spoofed in the opening of what we do in the shadows.

The first in terms of when Corbe painted it, although I think it appears second in the opening

credits of the show, is a painting titled Madam Agust Quoke, which was a commissioned rendering of Matilda Dipart as ordered by her husband. This features a woman in almost full length, wearing a black pleaded gown with a striking green wrap. The television show created one with the vampire Nadia as Madame Diport, and in the shows opening there is also a matching painting of Nadia's husband Laslo although Corbe did not paint a companion piece to Madame Agust Quoke.

The second Corbe spoof in the TV shows opening credits, once again features Nadia,

listed as the horse woman. This was also a portrait commission, Gustave was hired to paint

“Madam Clemente Laurier as a wedding gift to the bride from her husband. In this case Corbe did also”

paint a portrait of Monsieur Laurier, but it is not that portrait that's used for Laslo in the show. There's a matching portrait made that appears to be an original creation to look more like a match to the Madame Laurier painting. You can see both of Corbe's original portraits at the met. If you are interested and want to do a some sort of what we do in the shadows art crawl, that sounds great. In a moment we'll talk about Corbe's influence on the impressionists who

followed him and his involvement in politics, but first we are going to hear from some of the

sponsors who keep stuffy Mr. History class going. Yep, that's me, Clevver Taylor the fourth. You might have seen the skits, the reactions, my journey from basketball to college football, or my career in sports media. Well somewhere along the way, this platform became bigger than I ever imagined. And now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clevver Show. This is a place for

raw, unfiltered conversations with some of your favorite athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. One week I'll take you behind the scenes of the biggest moments in sports and entertainment, and the next we'll talk about life, mental health, purpose, and even music. The Clevver Show isn't just a podcast, it's a space for honest conversations,

stories that don't always get told, and for people who are chasing something bigger. So if you've

“ever supported me or you're just chasing down a dream, this is right what you need to be.”

Listen to the Clevver Show on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow @Clipper, and @Tiktok Podcast Network on TikTok. This is the insight you won't hear anywhere else. If you want to understand the draft like an insider, you don't want to miss this episode. Listen to the sports-liced podcast on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, wherever you get your podcast, and for more, follow @TimboSlicedLife12,

and @Tiktok Podcast Network on @Tiktok. There's two golden rules that any man should live by.

Rule one, never mess with a country girl. He plays stupid games, you get stupid prizes.

And rule two, never mess with her friends either. We always say that trust your girlfriends. I'm Anna Sinfield, and in this new season of The Girl Friends. Oh my god, this is the same man. A group of women discover they've all dated the same prolific con artist. I felt like I got hit by a truck. I thought how could this happen to me. The cops didn't seem to care, so they take matters into their own hands. I said,

oh hell no, I vowed. I will be his last target. He's going to get what he deserves. Listen to The Girl Friends, trust me babe. On the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. What's up, everyone? I'm Engobot and my next guest. You know from stepbrothers, anchor man, Saturday night live, and the big money players network, it's Will Ferrell. My dad gave me the best advice ever. I went and had a lunch with him one day, and I was like,

“and dad, I think I want to really give this a shot. I don't know what that means, but I just know”

the groundlings. I'm working my way up through it. I know it's a place that come look for up and coming talent. He said, if it was based solely on talent, I wouldn't worry about you, which is really sweet. Yeah. He goes, but there's so much lock and ball. And he's like, just give it a shot. He goes, but if you ever reach a point where you're banging your head against the wall, and it doesn't feel funny anymore, it's okay to quit. If you saw it written down, it would not be an inspiration.

It would not be on a calendar of, you know, the cat just hang in there. Yeah, it would not be right. It wouldn't be that. There's a lot in life. Listen to thanks dad on the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. Corby went to Germany for a visit in 1856, and there he made a lot of new connections with fellow artists. Whereas France had come to see Corby at this point as a rabble rowser, or sometimes even

nose at criticism, it seems that the German sensibilities were more willing to embrace his realism.

“He had painted a lot of works that featured hunting parties, and those were particularly popular in”

Germany. One of the interesting aspects of Corby's realism is that it wasn't confined to any particular subject matter. He painted landscapes. He painted the lower classes at their work. He made portraits of himself and other people. He painted nude studies of women. Quite a lot of them. His work in landscapes, though, is often said to have paved the way for the impressionist movement. As he worked to capture things like the sky as it was breaking into a storm over the sea at

the shoreline, he had started to bring in the ideas that shaped impressionism, particularly in his use of color and light reflections. Whereas Corby's realism was all about capturing all and any subjects of the world, impressionism would kind of take that to a new space, as it showed the world realistically, but with a focus on the ways that light and color can shift

“our perceptions of reality. Throughout the 1860s, Gustav enjoyed quite a bit of success. He had”

become the figurehead, not just for realism, but for breaking away from the establishment, and that really rebellious spirit combined with his skill attracted a lot of collectors.

Then there was relationship with the French government under Napoleon the third wasn't good.

He was nominated as a recipient of the French Legion of Honor in 1870. Corby turned this down writing quote, "honor does not lie in a title or a ribbon. It lies in actions and the motives for actions. I honor myself by remaining faithful to my lifelong principles. If I betrayed them, I should desert honor to wear its mark." Yeah, he was a not a fan of Napoleon the third's cover. At the end of the Franco-German War, also called the Franco-Pression War,

the Paris Commune formed as an insurrectionist group in response to dissatisfaction

“at the armist disagreement that France had signed with Germany. And Perre and Napoleon the third”

had entered the war way overconfident, and France had not really been prepared. And in the treaty of Frankfurt, France had had to concede the annexation of Alsace, and part of Loren, as well as the

payment of 5 billion francs to cover the expenses of the German army's occupation of France.

In the briefest of terms, this meant that the Paris Commune was against both the army of Versailles and the German army. There was fear that the National Assembly was going to reinstate the monarchy, which was opposite of what Parisians who favored the Republic wanted, and Corby aligned with the commune, as it attempted to establish its own French government and reject the third Republic and Napoleon the third. The commune had been established in the middle of March 1871,

and it was suppressed in May, so it didn't last very long. And Corby had left the group early in May before it was disbanded, because he actually found it too extreme. So here in a quote later, he didn't really like aligning with anybody, but that association with the Paris Commune really hurt him. Corby had been elected president of the artist's Federation, and in that role it felt to him to re-establish the National Salon into re-open the museums, which have been closed

during the war. He made an unusual move, though, and instead focused on monuments outside of Paris. The palace at Fontainebleux, which had been occupied by German forces, and the porcelain factory at Sev. As all of this was going on, members of the Paris Commune had decided to destroy a military monument in the Plassvendom. It was a column that commemorated Napoleon Bonaparte's military, and it was something Corby had spoken of with disdain on many occasions. When the Commune destroyed

it on May 16, Corby was believed to have spearheaded the move, even though he had left the group before that happened. He had circulated a petition to take that monument down the year before in 1870, so there was an official record of him calling for its destruction. After the Commune was conclusively defeated by the Army of Versailles at the end of May, Corby was arrested

in the first week of June, and put on trial as a political instigator.

"Let's trial did not go well. The people who actually had destroyed the monument had fled the country, although they had insisted that the artist had not been involved. Even so he was found guilty and sentenced to six months in prison. There was also a fine, although because Corby had friends who were highly placed in the new provisional government, the sum of that fine was minimal." Yeah, he was in this unique space where he kind of disliked every

established thing and fought against it, but he also had friends in almost every position with any alignment because a lot of people were buying his work and were fans of his.

facility near Paris to finish his sentence. When that sentence ended and he was a free man again,

“he did not stay in Paris. He instead went back to his beloved countryside and family in”

our norm. He hoped to rest and rebuild his health and put the whole thing behind him. But that was not to be. But even while incarcerated, he had written letters to his family that this whole ordeal had a bright side, which is that it was only going to drive up interest in his work and enable him to raise his prices. In 1872, Adolfier, who had helped ensure Corby's fines weren't too steep after his trial resigned from his presidency. Let's put

bullet apart loyalists back in power. They did not feel that Corby had truly paid his debt to society. So the French government sued Corby for the money needed to replace the destroyed

monument. The trial for this was never going to go his way. Corby was fined 500,000

“frux and this was an absurd amount of money. There was no way he could pay it. By the time the”

judgment was passed down, all of Corby's assets had already been seized including all of his paintings. Everything he owned had been taken by the French government. Yeah, I have seen different numbers, aside from that 500,000 frunks, but it's always many hundreds of thousands. It's kind of like the absurdly high number of going, Tracy, you owe me $12 billion. No, really, it was 13 billion. I mean, it's like it felt that absurd to him because he had nothing. In addition to that,

the government had been watching his family and friends. They were all under surveillance. And a number of artists that he was associated with finally decided that being associated with him was too dangerous and that he needed to be barred from future salons and basically excommunicated

“from the city's art circles. One of his friends in the art world wrote to another the sad phrase,”

he must be dead to us. So he left the country and headed for Switzerland. On July 23, 1873,

he left France and never returned. Initially, Corbe went to Flourier, which is only about 10

kilometers or a little more than six miles away from the French border, but Gustav became anxious that this was just too close to France. So he moved about 85 kilometers south to Leve on Lachlamam. He didn't stay there either, but also didn't travel very far before putting down routes. He went just about two kilometers more south to Lachor de Pils and purchased an in which he named Bonport or safe harbor. Because he had left Paris, he actually missed out on a move by some of his

fellow artists, which no doubt would have pleased him. In 1874, Monet, Pizarro, Saisan, and Renoir, tired of the Paris salon offering the only chance at having their work publicly seen, put together their own show. And that is actually the art exhibition that the term Impressionist was coined at. Many art historians credit Corbe's daring with helping to kickstart the Impressionist. Some of said it would have happened anyway, but it happened about 10 years earlier than it would have

had Corbe not been involved. In his final years, Corbe drank heavily and neglected his health. The stress of the trials and his incarceration and having so many of his colleagues turned their back on him, but all took a toll. He had hoped that he might be granted an amnesty and be able to return to France, but instead the French government directed him to pay the cost of the monument in 10,000 franc installments. This is going, you'll owe us forever. They also auctioned off all of

his art that they had seized. Corbe died on December 31, 1877. He was only 58 and the cause of

his death was listed as a Dima. That was likely the result of drinking. Although he had never

gotten to return to France in life, in 1919, his remains were moved from Switzerland to Orno, where he was re-entered in the same cemetery featured in his painting, "A burial at Orno." A 1912 collection of Corbe's work with commentary by Layals Benedict opens with the line quote, "Corbe was one of Corbe's favorite subjects. It has often been thrown up against him by men who forget that an artist has great difficulty in finding a model as convenient or as well studied as

himself." But it was said, the painter who delighted in making so many of his contemporaries looked uglier than they were was much nicer and more generous when it came to his own face. The artist has no excuse, saved the masterpieces that his rather exclusive indulgence has given us. We've only talked about a couple of the self-portraits here. It's worth checking out more of them.

but is striking. But really Gustav Corbe gave the art world an awful lot more than beautiful paintings.

“His rebellious spirit, which was part of his art really before he even became politically active,”

led to a number of innovations and moves the scandalized the art world at the time, but became very commonplace as later generations of artists adopted them. We already talked about his embrace of realism at a time when romanticism was the standard. His provocative paintings and behaviors were not accidental. He had written early in his career that he had a goal quote to change the public's taste and way of seeing. No small task for it means no more and no less than overturning

what exists and replacing it. In addition to that Corbe's nudes through the Paris art establishment

into a tizzy, he was certainly nodded all the first person to paint nude figures. Historical figures

and artwork completely acceptable at the time as nudes even in very sensual scenarios. But his realism was very real. It left nothing to the imagination. It wasn't romanticized. One of his most well-known

“examples of this is a painting titled "Origin of the World" or "Laurigen de Monde", which is the”

view of a woman's body lying on a bed in which her genitalia are the focus of the work. When he painted this in 1866, it was completely shocking. It was a private commission and it didn't go on public display, but art critics certainly saw it and they weighed in on it. There's debate around it that continues until this day. The origin of the world passed from private collector to private collector over the years. It was once even owned by Jacques Lacan, but it didn't go on public display

until 1988 when it was shown at the Brooklyn Museum in New York. Today, it's part of the collection of the music, or say, and it's still illicit's really strong responses, but it and similar work set the stage for other artists to show human bodies without the limitations that the art established had placed on them before this work. There's also some fun gossip about who the model for this may have been that Holly is going to talk about on Friday. Yes, that gossip is good.

This is interesting because it's one of those things that was considered pornographic when he painted it in 1866. There are still people today who will say that straight up pornography and not art. It's very controversial, so he sure did stay relevant in that regard. Even in less explicit paintings, Corbe's detractors found him to be scandalous. In 1872, at a time when the painter's life and country were in upheaval, he painted a work called sleep, and this features two naked women

asleep in each other's arms. It was considered so controversial when it was shown publicly that there was actually a police report filed about it or in decency. As Corbe was already on the outs with the French government at this time, that report went into a file that was being kept to document his life. On a more technical note, rather than relating to his subject matter,

Corbe was also one of the first artists to use a palette knife in his fingers to apply the paint

to the canvas. Palette knives were strictly considered mixing tools at the time. This was the fine art equivalent of applying wall paint with a stirstick. For Corbe, though, was a different way to control his medium. Yeah, and it was one of those things, I mean, obviously it worked,

“and he was very good at it. I think it was, um, Suzanne that said, like his talent was just limitless,”

and it was kind of a reflection of him being able to do completely new things in ways that resulted in just beautiful work. Today, Corbe's work is recognized for its important in the development of Western art. There are frequent exhibitions mounted featuring most of his works. Two canvases, though, are generally excluded, both burial at or null, and the painter's studio are very large, which makes shipping difficult, but they are also considered to be too delicate to be shipped. So,

even though they are considered some of his most important works, both remain in the permanent

collection of the Musei Darsei, and they cannot be loaned out. Another important Corbe painting that you will not see in any collected exhibit today is the stonebreakers, because it was unfortunately destroyed during the bombing of Dresden in World War II. Eight years before his death, Corbe was embroiled in France's very volatile political shifts. He described himself and his ideology in a single succinct passage in a letter to a friend. It seems the right place to wrap up his story.

He wrote, quote, "I am 50 years old, and I have always lived in freedom. Let me end my life free." When I am dead, let this be said of me. People long to know school, to know church, to know institution, to know Academy, least of all to any regime, except the regime of liberty.

our email addresses, history, podcast at iheartradio.com, and you can subscribe to the show on the

“iheartradio app, apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shoes.”

Yep, that's me, Cliver Taylor the fourth. You might have seen the skits, my basketball and college football journey, or my career in sports media.

Well now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Cliver Show.

This is a place for raw, unfills of conversations with athletes, creators,

“and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. So let's get to it.”

Listen to the Cliver Show on the iheartradio app, apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow @[email protected], and that work on TikTok. This week on the SportsLice podcast, it's all about the NFL draft, and we've got a special guest. The director of the NFL's East-Sweast Triangle Eric Galpo joins the SportsLice podcast to break down what really matters when evaluating draft prospects. From hitting trades,

teams look for to the biggest mistakes franchises make to the players flying under the radar.

“This is the insight you won't hear anywhere else. If you want to understand the draft”

like an insider, you don't want to miss this episode. Listen to the SportsLice podcast on the iheartradio app, apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow @timboSlicelife12, and TikTok podcast network on TikTok. When a group of women discover they've all dated the same prolific con artist. They take matters into their own hands. I vowed, I will be his last target.

He is not going to get away with this. He's going to get what he deserves.

We always say that trust your girlfriends. Listen to the girlfriends. Trust me, babe.

On the iheartradio app, apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. What's up, everyone? I'm Jacob Odom. My next guest. It's Will Ferrell. My dad gave me the best advice ever. He goes, just give it a shot. But if you ever reach a point where you're banging your head against the wall and it doesn't feel funny more, it's okay to quit. If you saw it written down, it would not be an inspiration. It would not be on

a calendar of, you know, the cat just hang in there. Yeah, it would not be. Right, it wouldn't be that. There's a lot in life. Listen to things that on the iheartradio app, apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.