Le Pont de Fleurier

Dated 1873 and now in the Musée des Beaux-Arts et d'Archéologie de Besançon, this bridge subject painted near Fleurier in the Swiss Neuchâtel canton reflects the period Courbet spent in Switzerland following his escape from France after the Commune trial. Having been held responsible for the Vendôme Column's destruction and facing enormous financial penalties, Courbet crossed into Switzerland in 1873 and remained there until his death in 1877. His Swiss exile produced a significant body of work, including lake and mountain subjects alongside continuing Franche-Comté-adjacent landscapes. The Pont de Fleurier is thus a painting of displacement — the artist in a landscape that resembles home but is not home.

The stone bridge is rendered with the geological attentiveness Courbet applied to all architectural features in landscape — the cut and laid stone described with palette knife work that differentiates masonry from the organic textures of surrounding vegetation. The stream below the bridge continues his long engagement with Jura-type watercourses. The Swiss light has a slightly crisper, higher-altitude quality than the Franche-Comté.