# Young Ladies of the Village

**Gustave Courbet** (French, 1819–1877)  
1851–52  
Oil on canvas  
76 3/4 x 102 3/4 in. (194.9 x 261 cm)

Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 40.175. [The museum's record](https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/438820).

## About this work

Three young women in their Sunday best, Courbet’s own sisters, pause on a hillside path near Ornans to give alms to a barefoot cowherd girl, while cows graze and a small dog stands nearby. Courbet showed the painting at the Salon of 1852, and critics mocked it: the provincial figures looked awkward and out of scale against the broad valley, and the canvas seemed to give an ordinary rural encounter the dignity of a major painting. Today that frankness is just what makes it compelling. Limestone cliffs close in behind the scene.

_Written by Ochre Editions._

Gustave Courbet painted this in 1851–52, aged about 32. 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 about 32
- Real size: about 77 × 103 in (195 × 261 cm). The original is larger than our largest print, 20 × 30 in, so every print is a reduction.
- Century: 19th century
- Subjects: Girls, Women, Cows, Dogs, Landscapes, Baskets, Parasols
- 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/1195.jpg?dl=1
- Image: https://img.ochreeditions.com/a/1195/1920.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/young-ladies-of-the-village-met-438820).