The Parisian museum will host this masterpiece from 1844-1845, on loan from Qatar Museums, for at least five years.
The Musée d’Orsay exhibits from Tuesday The Desperatea very famous self-portrait by Gustave Courbet which has not been shown to the French public for almost twenty years, AFP learned Monday from the Parisian establishment. Representing a hallucinated Courbet, this masterpiece from 1844-1845 is on loan to Orsay for at least five years by Qatar Museums, the emirate’s museum development organization, which acquired it from a private owner on an unknown date and for an unknown amount.
Known worldwide but very rarely exhibited, this small format oil on canvas (45×54 cm) has not been shown to the French public since 2007-2008 during the retrospective devoted to this master of realism (1819-1877) in Paris, New York then Montpellier (south). Before this major international exhibition, this painting painted by Courbet when he was only 25 years old had not been exhibited since the end of the 1970s, the Musée d’Orsay told AFP, which has around thirty paintings by the French painter in its collections, including “A Funeral in Ornans”.
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“The Desperate is unique in Courbet’s production of self-portraits because it is the most hallucinatory, it is the strongest in terms of expression of emotions and feelings”explained to AFP Paul Perrin, chief curator of Orsay. As a young painter who came from the east of France to seek success in Paris, Courbet depicted his features disfigured by terror, fear or madness, holding his head, arms and face caught in a stunning chiaroscuro.
“A demonstration of pictorial mastery”
“It’s truly a demonstration of pictorial mastery”comments Perrin. Like other paintings by Courbet, The Desperatealso called Self-portrait of the artist or Despairhas never been part of French public collections and has been in the hands of private owners for a very long time.
The father of French psychoanalysis, Jacques Lacan, thus possessed The Origin of the Worldanother masterpiece by Courbet, which joined the collections of the Musée d’Orsay in 1995. The dispersion of the artist’s work is largely due to his legal and political adventures. Convicted in France for his participation in the Paris Commune uprising of 1871, Courbet went into exile in Switzerland to escape prison and had to sell his paintings to pay the heavy penalty imposed by the courts.
At the time of the major retrospective of 2007-2008, The Desperate was the property of the arts investment fund of the French bank BNP Paribas, AFP learned from reliable sources. The Qataris then acquired it with the aim of exhibiting it in their future museum of contemporary and modern art, the Art Mill Museum in Doha, the construction of which must be completed by 2030.
“This work will travel regularly between Doha and Paris”
On the French side, Sylvain Amic, appointed head of Orsay in 2024 and an eminent Courbet specialist, was the main architect of the loan agreement for this work, signed last April with the president of Qatar Museums, Sheykha Al-Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani.
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But his sudden death, which occurred at the end of August, prevented him from seeing this loan materialize. “He was really enthusiastic about making this work accessible to our visitors again”Julia Beurton, general administrator of the Public Establishment of the Orsay and Orangerie Museums, told AFP.
“Today we honor his memory by unveiling Le Désespéré at the Musée d’Orsay, with the pride of knowing that this work will travel regularly between Doha and Paris, and with the conviction that Sylvain’s legacy will inspire future generations of directors and curators to conceive of culture as a force that goes beyond the walls of their institutions”indicates Ms. Al Thani, in a press release sent to AFP.
