# Woman with a Parrot

**Gustave Courbet** (French, 1819–1877)  
1866  
Oil on canvas  
51 x 77 in. (129.5 x 195.6 cm)

Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 29.100.57. [The museum's record](https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/436002).

## About this work

A nude woman lies on a rumpled white sheet, her long hair spilling across the bed, as she raises one hand to a parrot perched on her fingers, its wings spread. Courbet showed the painting at the Paris Salon of 1866; although less defiant than some of his earlier nudes, its frank sensuality and lack of any mythological pretext still caused a stir. The tumbling hair, twisting pose and flicker of the bird’s wings make it one of his most theatrical compositions. Manet answered it the same year with a fully clothed woman and a parrot, also in the Met.

_Written by Ochre Editions._

Gustave Courbet painted this in 1866, aged 47. It is now at The Met in New York.

### How it was made

- **Oil paint.** Pigment ground in a drying oil, usually linseed. It dries slowly, so painters could blend on the canvas, build up thin translucent glazes, and rework a picture over weeks. Canvas replaced wooden panels in the 1500s because it is lighter and can be rolled.

### [Gustave Courbet](https://www.ochreeditions.com/artists/gustave-courbet)

French, 1819–1877; born in Ornans; died in La Tour-de-Peilz

Courbet left his native Ornans for Paris and became the standard-bearer of Realism, painting ordinary people and his own region on the scale reserved for history painting, as in A Burial at Ornans. When works were refused for the 1855 Exposition Universelle, he showed them in his own Pavilion of Realism. He also painted landscapes, seascapes and hunting scenes. After the Paris Commune of 1871 he was held responsible for the toppling of the Vendôme Column and spent his last years in exile in Switzerland.

_Written by Ochre Editions._

## Facts

- Type: Paintings
- The artist was 47
- Real size: about 51 × 77 in (130 × 196 cm). The original is larger than our largest print, 20 × 30 in, so every print is a reduction.
- Century: 19th century
- Subjects: Female Nudes, Parrots
- Colour: brown
- Rights: public domain (CC0 1.0); free to use for any purpose.

## Get it

- Free download, full resolution: https://img.ochreeditions.com/m/1079.jpg?dl=1
- Image: https://img.ochreeditions.com/a/1079/1920.jpg
- Giclée reproduction on Hahnemühle Photo Rag: 8 × 10 in $28; 11 × 14 in $38; 12 × 16 in $42; 16 × 20 in $56; 18 × 24 in $68; 20 × 30 in $86
- Framed reproduction: 8 × 10 in $78; 11 × 14 in $98; 12 × 16 in $108; 16 × 20 in $138; 18 × 24 in $164; 20 × 30 in $208
- Canvas reproduction: 8 × 10 in $58; 11 × 14 in $72; 12 × 16 in $79; 16 × 20 in $98; 18 × 24 in $118
- Print-ready file: 8 × 10 in $2; 11 × 14 in $2; 12 × 16 in $3; 16 × 20 in $3; 18 × 24 in $3; 20 × 30 in $5

Sizes stop where the museum's file would print below 150 pixels per inch. Everything sold is a reproduction, made to order. [Order a print](https://www.ochreeditions.com/art/woman-with-a-parrot-met-436002).