The artwork titled “Portrait of a Young Girl from Salins” was created by Gustave Courbet in the year 1860. Employing oil on canvas as his medium, Courbet crafted this piece within the Realism art movement, emphasizing a truthful and accurate depiction of the subject matter. The genre of the artwork is portraiture, and as of the provided information, it resides within a private collection.
“Portrait of a Young Girl from Salins” features the delicate likeness of a young female subject. The composition focuses on the girl’s face and upper torso as she appears to be glancing to the side, away from the viewer. Her expression is serene with a hint of pensiveness, as characterized by the era’s embrace of capturing the emotion and reality of the subject. The girl’s attire, particularly the intricate lace collar, is rendered with a meticulous attention to detail, contrasting with the more loosely painted dark background which serves to draw the viewer’s attention predominantly to her features and the textural elements of her clothing. Courbet’s brushwork conveys a sense of immediacy and intimacy, which is a hallmark of the Realist movement’s departure from the idealization found in earlier styles such as Romanticism or Neoclassicism. The subtle interplay of light and shadow on the girl’s face enhances the three-dimensionality of the form and infuses the portrait with a lifelike quality.
