Madame Auguste Cuoq

Madame Auguste Cuoq
Artist	Gustave Courbet
Year	c. 1852-57
Medium	Oil on canvas
Subject	Mathilde Desportes
Dimensions	176.5 cm× 108 cm(69.5 in× 43 in)
Location	Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Accession	29.100.130

Madame Auguste Cuoq is an oil on canvas by French artist Gustave Courbet, from c. 1852-1857. ^[1] The painting depicts Mathilde Desportes (Madame Auguste Cuoq), a French model who often sat for portraits. ^[2] The painting is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in New York.

Description

Courbet painted Madame Auguste Cuoq somewhere between 1852 and 1857, and displayed it at an exhibition of his in 1867. The subject of the portrait, the titular Madame Auguste Cuoq, was painted by several notable artists of his time, including Courbet and Jean-Jacques Henner. Notably, Cuoq's husband rejected the portrait, feeling that it did not capture his wife's beauty. Citing its large scale and intimate setting, the painting has been described as one of Courbet's most unusual works. ^[3] The painting was eventually acquired by the Louisine Havemeyer and later donated by the Havemeyer Collection to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. ^[4]

References

1. H. O. Havemeyer Collection: Catalogue of Paintings, Prints, Sculpture and Objects of Art. n.p., 1931, pp. 94–95, no. 25
2. "Gustave Courbet | Madame Auguste Cuoq (Mathilde Desportes, 1827–1910)". The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
3. French Paintings: A Catalogue of the Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Vol. 2, Nineteenth Century. Metropolitan Museum of Art. 1967.
4. Frelinghuysen, Alice Cooney; Collection, Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, N. Y. ) Havemeyer; N.Y.), Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York (1993). Splendid Legacy: The Havemeyer Collection. Metropolitan Museum of Art. ISBN   978-0-87099-664-1.

External links

Media related to Madame Auguste Cuoq at Wikimedia Commons