courbet was born here in ornans, the son of a prosperous farmer, a member of the class which the parisiansound so puzzling when they saw it depicted in the burial. courbet presented himself as a man of the country... a sort of natural being with untamed appetites. courbet was also an anarchist, a follower of pierre-joseph proudhon, who wanted to do away with central government and create a classless society of free individuals. individualism and realism were closely connected for courbet, who felt that the artist could only realize himself through an immersion in the physical world. "i believe that painting is an essentially concrete art "and can only consist in the representation of real and existing things." "an abstract object does not belong in the domain of painting." courbet's technique, with its loose brushwork and sweeps of the palette knife, producing simple, very physical surfaces of thick oil paint, tangibly records his engagement with the physical stuff of this world. courbet's landscapes, with their simple, natural elements-- trees, crags, waterfalls-- emphasize the primacy of