Courbet nude emerges for garden party

Antique Trade Gazette, Anne Crane

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This work is billed as the largest ever nude by Gustave Courbet (1819-77) to be offered at auction

Titled La Grande Baigneuse or Femme nue couchée au bord de l’eau, the painting shows a naked woman lying on a river bank, one hand lifting a lock of hair, the other trailing in the water.

The 5ft 3in x 2ft 9in (1.6m x 83cm) oil on canvas by the French artist will be making an appearance at Rouillac’s Garden Party auction in Touraine on June 4 with an estimate of €300,000-500,000.

It was discovered in 2013 in a Paris collection and was shown to the public in 2019 at the artist’s bicentenary exhibition at Musée Courbet at Ornans.

The work was painted in around 1869 and its subject relates to two of the artist’s favourite themes: the female nude and the landscape around Ornans.

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