In 1840, Courbet arrived in Paris and attended law school, which he soon dropped out of to concentrate on his painting. He studied paintings at the Louvre, copying the Romantic painters such as Gericault and Delacroix. In 1844, he had his first painting accepted by the Salon: "Self Portrait With a Black Dog, which he had painted two years before. He spent the next few years going between Paris and Ornans, taking a trip to Holland as well, where his art was appreciated and where he studied Dutch art.
In 1848, he acquired his studio at 32 Rue Hautefeuille, where a varied group of painters who would be called the Realists gathered - artists like Corot and Daumier as well as writers such as Proud'hon. He continued to show paintings at the Salon, many of which were received with great enthusiasm. His painting "After Dinner at Ornans" (1849) is reported to have impressed both Ingres and Delacroix at the 1849 Salon. Delacroix was often harsh in his criticism of Courbet, as were many other critics of the day, who were outraged by Courbet's works - such as "The Stone Breakers" and others that were austere portrayals of everyday life, rather than depictions of academic history or religious subjects.
Courbet's 1854 large canvas, "The Artist 's Studio," which depicted a crowded studio that featured a nude woman in the center of the picture, was rejected by the International Exposition of 1855 - as was "Burial." Courbet was furious at this, and decided to construct his own pavilion at his own expense, and he exhibited forty pictures in it. He repeated this gesture at the International Exposition of 1867, and he exhibited over a hundred paintings, but with only modest success.
Courbet was also known for being politically active and outspoken, and in 1870, when war was declared, he turned down the Legion of Honor by the new minister, Emile Ollivier. After the empire fell in August of that year, Courbet was elected president of a commission of artists responsible for protection of works of art from looters. He drew up a petition to recommend the destruction of Napoleon's column at the Place Vendome, and in 1871, after the revolutionary Commune ceded to the new government, Courbet was arrested and imprisoned for for his part in the destruction of the column. Despite appeals, the charges held, and Courbet was charged for the cost of the destruction, and his assets were seized. He continued to paint in prison, but the charge continued to haunt him unitl his death on Decmeber 31, 1877.
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