Le Sommeil
{{Short description|Painting by Gustave Courbet}}
{{infobox artwork
| image_file=Gustave Courbet - Le Sommeil (1866), Paris, Petit Palais.jpg
| image_size = 350px
| title= The Sleepers
| other_language_1 = French
| other_title_1 = Le Sommeil
| artist=Gustave Courbet
| year=1866
| medium=Oil on canvas
| height_metric=135
| width_metric=200
| metric_unit=cm
| imperial_unit=in
| museum=Petit Palais
| city=Paris
}}
{{Lang|fr|Le Sommeil}} (translated in English variously as The Sleepers and Sleep) is an eroticDorothy M. Kosinski, [https://www.jstor.org/pss/1483342 Gustave Courbet's The Sleepers. The Lesbian Image in Nineteenth Century French Art and Literature], Artibus et Historiae, Vol. 9, No. 18 (1988), p.187 oil painting on canvas by French artist Gustave Courbet{{cite book|author=Wendy Michallat|title=Lesbian inscriptions in Francophone society and culture|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=006IBNRlwFIC&pg=PA8|accessdate=17 February 2012|year=2007|publisher=Durham Modern Languages|isbn=978-0-907310-62-4|pages=8}} created in 1866.{{cite book|author1=George Haggerty|author2=Bonnie Zimmerman|title=Encyclopedia of lesbian and gay histories and cultures|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nvt8el4QtPwC&pg=PA311|accessdate=17 February 2012|year=2000|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=978-0-8153-3354-8|pages=311}} The painting, which depicts a lesbian couple, is also known as The Two Friends (Les Deux Amies) and Indolence and Lust (Paresse et Luxure).
History
{{Lang|fr|Le Sommeil}} was originally commissioned by the Turkish diplomat and art collector of the late Ottoman era, Halil Şerif Paşa, who had lived in Paris since 1860.[http://www.petitpalais.paris.fr/fr/collections/le-sommeil Le Sommeil], Petit Palais{{cite book|author=Griselda Pollock|author-link=Griselda Pollock|title=Differencing the canon: feminist desire and the writing of art's histories|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qxGjuGVhVaYC&pg=PA315|accessdate=18 February 2012|year=1999|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-0-415-06700-3|pages=315}} The painting was not permitted to be shown publicly until 1988, like a number of Courbet's other works such as {{Lang|fr|L'Origine du monde}}. When {{Lang|fr|Le Sommeil}} was exhibited by a picture dealer in 1872, it became the subject of a police report.{{cite book|author1=Sarah Faunce|author2=Linda Nochlin|title=Courbet reconsidered|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OXt4QgAACAAJ|accessdate=18 February 2012|year=1988|publisher=Brooklyn Museum|isbn=978-0-300-04298-6|page=176}} One of the models for the painting was Joanna Hiffernan, who was the mistress of fellow painter James Abbott Whistler at the time. Whistler's relationship with Hiffernan ended soon afterwards, and his opinion of Courbet soured.
The Encyclopedia of Lesbian and Gay Histories and Cultures describes {{Lang|fr|Le Sommeil}} as a "famous" painting. The painting created an impact in 19th-century art, because after the public display of {{Lang|fr|Le Sommeil}}, a number of contemporary artists were influenced by the theme of lesbian couples. Repetition of this theme helped to lower the taboos associated with lesbian relationships.
In 1955, Bernard Buffet painted his version of Le Sommeil as a tribute to Courbet.{{cite book |last1=Buffet |first1=Bernard |title=Rétrospective Bernard Buffet |date=2016 |publisher=Paris musées |location=Paris |isbn=978-2-7596-0331-2 |pages=72–73}}
Today {{Lang|fr|Le Sommeil}} is in the collection of the Petit Palais, a Parisian museum.
Description
The painting shows two naked women lying asleep on a bed entwined in an erotic embrace.
The setting is a bedroom with various textiles and ornamental furnishing. In the background there is a dark blue velvet curtain and in the right corner a table with a decorative flower vase. In the foreground is a small wooden table holding three items – a colored flacon (a small vessel), a transparent crystal vase, and a cup. Except for these few furnishings, there is nothing in the painting to overshadow the main image – the women.
One of the sleeping women is redhead, the other is brunette. For color contrast, Courbet worked curves between the women. A broken pearl necklace and a hairpin scattered in the bed reference the nature of their previous activity.
Analysis
The painting was inspired by Charles Baudelaire's poem "Delphine et Hippolyte", from his collection Les Fleurs du mal.{{cite book|author=Elisabeth Ladenson|title=Dirt for art's sake: books on trial from Madame Bovary to Lolita|url=https://archive.org/details/dirtforartssakeb0000lade|url-access=registration|accessdate=17 February 2012|year=2007|publisher=Cornell University Press|isbn=978-0-8014-4168-4|pages=[https://archive.org/details/dirtforartssakeb0000lade/page/75 75]–}}{{cite book|author=Elisabeth Ladenson|title=Proust's Lesbianism|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2pegaeC9CWUC&pg=PA25|accessdate=17 February 2012|date=April 2007|publisher=Cornell University Press|isbn=978-0-8014-7350-0|pages=25}} {{Lang|fr|Le Sommeil}} has been interpreted as a realist painting, detailing the bodies without glossing over their imperfections.
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- [https://arthive.com/artists/61972~Bernard_Buffet/works/401556~D_aprs_Le_sommeil_Courbet Bernard Buffet's version of Le Sommeil]
{{Gustave Courbet}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sommeil}}
Category:Paintings by Gustave Courbet