The Source of the Loue. Artist: Gustave Courbet (French, Ornans 1819-1877 La Tour-de-Peilz). Dimensions: 39 1/4 x 56 in. (99.7 x 142.2 cm). Date: 1864.
Courbet often painted the rocky grotto at the source of the Loue, the river that flows through his native village, Ornans, in the Franche-Comté region of eastern France. This view is probably one of four he mentioned to the dealer Luquet in the spring of 1864, when he wrote: "I've been to the source of the Loue these last days and made four landscapes about 1 meter 40.".