Gustave Courbet
Courbet painted a large picture of everday-life at Ornans. The painting, called After Dinner at Ornans, shows four men who have just finished a meal at a little table, which is perhaps in an inn. One man is playing his violin, one man is lighting his pipe. Courbet sits listening, with his head leaning on his hand. A large dog is curled under a chair. Courbet showed the painting at the Salon Exhibition in Paris. It was a great success. It won a Gold Medal and was bought by the French Government.32 Because of the gold medal, Courbet could hang his pictures at the Salon Exhibitions without having them checked by a jury first. This rule was changed in 1857.55 Courbet's work, and the work of Honoré Daumier and Jean-François Millet, became known as Realism. Like the Dutch painters he admired, Courbet often painted in broad, rough brush strokes. He often used dark earthy colours, particularly brown, in his paintings.