Waterfalls

Dated 1864 and held by Musées Nationaux Récupération, this waterfall subject is among Courbet's many studies of falling water in the Doubs and Loue river systems of the Franche-Comté. Waterfalls presented a specific technical and perceptual challenge: the water in motion could be rendered as a solid white mass, as a veil over rock, or as broken spray and cascade, and each approach conveyed a different understanding of water's physical behavior. Courbet was deeply attentive to these differences across his many water subjects. The Musées Nationaux Récupération holding again indicates twentieth-century displacement of the work.

A waterfall requires the painter to decide how to render moving water: Courbet typically used thick white impasto for the central cascade to convey force and mass, with lighter, more broken handling at the edges where water spreads into spray. The dark rock face behind provides tonal contrast essential for the white water to register. Mist and spray around the falls are treated with thin, diffused paint.