Woman in a Riding Habit 1856

Gustave Courbet's "Woman in a Riding Habit" (1856) is a realist portrait depicting a woman in a fashionable riding outfit against a blurred landscape background. The work captures the subject's serious expression and the details of her attire with precise brushstrokes, demonstrating Courbet's commitment to portraying everyday life with accuracy and a sense of realism. The painting exemplifies Courbet's distinctive style, which rejected the romantic idealism of the time, and favored depicting the mundane and the ordinary, often focusing on the working class and the natural world.