Γράμματα στους Γερμανούς

by Gustave Courbet, Γιάννης Μπαρτσώκας (Editor), Σταύρος Βελούδος (Translator)

Την εποχή της πολιορκίας καθένας τρελαίνεται. Οι Γερμανοί φταίνε. Εγώ, από ζωγράφος, εδώ παίρνω την πένα. Οι λογοτέχνες γίναν πολυτεχνίτες, οι μουσικοί πυροβολητές, όλοι οι έμποροι στρατηγοί, οι στρατηγοί νομοθέτες. Με μία λέξη, καθένας κάνει κάτι που δεν ξέρει - είμαστε, λοιπόν, «ελεύθεροι»!

Στην καρδιά του Γαλλο-πρωσικού πολέμου, ο πρωτοπόρος ζωγράφος Κουρμπέ παίρνει θέση - το πάθος του ξεχειλίζει, το ζωγραφικό του ταλέντο διοχετεύεται σε σελίδες βιβλίου, κι απ' τα γραπτά του αναδύεται όχι μονάχα η συνείδηση ενός καλλιτέχνη εν μέσω πολέμου, αλλά και η πάλη δυο πολιτισμών: της Γαλλίας και της Γερμανίας.

120 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published October 29, 1870

About the author

Jean Désiré Gustave Courbet was a French painter who led the Realist movement in 19th-century French painting. Committed to painting only what he could see, he rejected academic convention and the Romanticism of the previous generation of visual artists. His independence set an example that was important to later artists, such as the Impressionists and the Cubists. Courbet occupies an important place in 19th-century French painting as an innovator and as an artist willing to make bold social statements through his work.

Courbet's paintings of the late 1840s and early 1850s brought him his first recognition. They challenged convention by depicting unidealized peasants and workers, often on a grand scale traditionally reserved for paintings of religious or historical subjects. Courbet's subsequent paintings were mostly of a less overtly political character: landscapes, seascapes, hunting scenes, nudes, and still lifes. Courbet, a socialist, was active in the political developments of France. He was imprisoned for six months in 1871 for his involvement with the Paris Commune and lived in exile in Switzerland from 1873 until his death four years later.