Page 26 - Maastricht 2022 Catalogue

Gustave Courbet

YOUNG GIRL SLEEPING (JEUNE FILLE DORMANT)

Executed in 1847 and exhibited at the Salon of 1848, Young Girl
Sleeping is one of Courbet’s earliest paintings to explore the theme
of a woman asleep. He would return to this subject time and
again choosing to portray a variety of female types, where their
only shared trait was that they were shown sleeping. The subjects
were diverse, ranging from a comely spinner (1853) to a corseted
Parisienne on the banks of the Seine (1856) to the beautiful Greek
goddess, Psyche (1864). This theme would culminate in The Sleepers
(1866), a large-scale painting of two nude women entwined in an
embrace on a large bed, among Courbet’s most erotic and sensual
paintings. Our painting, on the other hand, strikes a much more
innocent note. The young model appears in a dream-like state, her
head gently resting on her arm; the pose may derive from an earlier
pencil drawing showing Courbet’s younger sister, Juliette asleep
while reading a book (c. 1840). In the oil, the girl’s innocence is
only matched by her ethereal beauty, yet Courbet has still managed
to capture her nascent sensuality, the folds of the white drapery
concealing, yet subtly emphasizing, the curves of her body. The
picture evokes Picasso’s lyrical portraits of Marie-Thérèse Walter,
where often the subject, mood and composition are similar to those
in Young Girl Sleeping. Courbet, like Picasso, would herald a new age
by defying so much of what had been acceptable in order to create a
new interpretation of what could and should be defined as art. They
each revolutionized and changed the course of art history.

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