Woman with a Parrot

Gustave Courbet was criticized by some critics at the Salon of 1866 for this “ungainly” nude painting of a real woman. Critics would have accepted a nude mythological woman, such as a goddess. As a leader of the Realism movement, Courbet turned away from painting the fantastical and instead embraced painting only what he could observe. Woman with a Parrot depicts a young, nude woman splayed out across a bed. The scene is messy - her hair is unkempt, her limbs are sprawled and tangled in crumpled sheets, and her clothes are discarded in a pile. Perhaps this is a quiet post-coital moment, or perhaps she is relaxing after waking from a nap. She flashes a toothy smile at a colorful parrot who is perched on her arm with its wings outstretched.