Lac Léman, soleil couchant

Painted in 1875, Lac Léman, soleil couchant is a work by Gustave Courbet, now in the collection of St. Gallen Museum of Art, that reflects the artistic concerns of the late 19th century — an era of fundamental transformation in both the methods and purposes of European and American painting. Courbet was the founder and champion of Realism, insisting that painting must engage with the contemporary world as it actually existed — peasants, laborers, landscapes, and ordinary social life — rather than the mythological or historical subjects demanded by the Academy.

Courbet applied paint with a palette knife as readily as a brush, building thick, tactile surfaces that emphasize the physical materiality of paint. His palette is earthy and dense — dark browns, forest greens, cool grays — with dramatic tonal contrasts recalling Dutch and Spanish masters.