Purchased in Paris in 1904 by Pietro Romanelli, the painting then passed to the art dealer Bruno Lorenzelli, who was the first to correctly attribute it to the hand of the Master of Ornans. After various moves, it came to the Finazzi heirs, where Jean-Jacques Fernier examined it for the first time in 2011.
‘The artwork represents,’ Fernier himself writes, ’a stream between two cliffs, with the more distant one illuminated by the sun’s rays under a blue sky, while the foreground is in shadow.’ This recurring theme in Courbet’s 1970s works, strikes Fernier as the glow of the last Jura landscapes, a final impression of his beloved native landscape.
The uniqueness of ‘Rochers d’Ornans’ lies in a diagonal that divides the painting: on one side the shadow that envelops the material and on the other the light that highlights a chromatic range of red, blue, violet and green.
By capturing nature without filters, Courbet confirmed himself as a genius of realism and a leading figure capable of influencing 20th century artists such as Morandi and Morlotti. His assimilation of the great Flemish painters and the light-shadow contrast of the 17th century intertwined with the young Impressionists who worshipped him.
You will find this fantastic painting at auction on 11 December in Milan within the catalogue Figurative Art between the 19th and 20th century
