The Storm

Storms were a favorite subject of the Romanticists, who prioritized individual emotions over rationality, harmony, or order, and paid homage to the infinite and transcendent. Courbet’s work was revolutionary in that he depicted the awesome power of nature itself rather than adopting an anthropocentric perspective. For Courbet, born in the French mountain village of Ornans near the Swiss border, the sea was a thoroughly unknown and unfamiliar entity. He primarily painted marine subjects during stays in Deauville in northwestern France in the fall of 1865 and 1866, and in Étretat in north France in August and September 1869. In this painting there are no human figures, and instead, a ship washed ashore indirectly conveys the ferocity of nature. (M.N.)