GUSTAVE COURBET (FRENCH, 1819-1877)

Courbet painted the present portrait during an 1869 trip to visit the painter Charles Joliclerc in Pontarlier in eastern France. The sitter, Madame Sophie Loiseau, had requested that she be depicted by Courbet with her favourite Turkish Angora cat sat upon her knee. Fernier notes that Madame Loiseau’s son was less keen on the feline addition to the painting and as soon as Courbet had ‘turned on his heels’ he painted over the animal; traces of which can be seen on the sitters lap (R. Fernier, La vie et l'oeuvre de Gustave Courbet, vol II, p. 72).