The beautiful is in nature, and it is encountered under the most diverse forms of reality. Once it is found it belongs to art, or rather to the artist who discovers it.

Courbet occupies an important place in 19th century French painting as an innovator and as an artist willing to make bold social commentary in his work. Courbet's influence can also be seen in the work of Edward Hopper whose Bridge in Paris (1906) and Approaching a City (1946) have been described as Freudian echoes of Courbet's The Source of the Loue and The Origin of the World. The result is a realistic presentation of them and of life in Ornans.

Courbet occupies an important place in 19th century French painting as an innovator and as an artist willing to make bold social commentary in his work. The Realist movement bridged the Romantic movement (characterized by the paintings of Théodore Géricault and Eugène Delacroix) with the Barbizon School and the Impressionists. Jean Désiré Gustave Courbet (French pronunciation: ​[ɡystav kuʁbɛ]; 10 June 1819 – 31 December 1877) was a French painter who led the Realist movement in 19th-century French painting.