I've had Courbet on the brain after watching an old TASKMASTER in which Sophie Duker referenced his "L'Origine du monde," which funnily enough returns zero images in the main search results page when you Google it, unlike virtually every other masterpiece, so he's as relevant as ever in my book

You probably know him from "The Desperate Man" which I only refer to in English because I don't know how to spell the French. Also was there some 2000s Johnny Depp movie that referenced this image? It's scratching at where I used to keep Johnny Depp info in my brain

Anyway his nudes (like L'Origine) are wonderful, with (mostly) unromanticized bodies and a better understanding of how boobs slide on a reclining body than most painters of renown lol

(I will never ever get over Michaelangelo's bolted-on breasts in any format, but I read recently that he may have been depicting late stage breast cancer in at least one sculpture which is fascinating!)

🙏