Art Throb #13: The Trout (1872) by Gustave Courbet (1819-1877)

The Trout (La truite) (1872) by Gustave Courbet

Oil on canvas

Kunsthaus Zürich, Switzerland

Another new painting for me. I came across it while reading about the death of the art critic Robert Hughes. An article in The Guardian listed some of his best quotes, one of them being "A Gustave Courbet portrait of a trout has more death in it than Rubens could get in a whole crucifixion." When I clicked on the link to the trout, it took my breath away, while the Rubens crucifixion does seem rather silly in comparison.

The Trout is a variation on the 17th-Century Dutch still life tradition, yet this one is not arranged artfully amid a collection of tastefully-assembled objects. It is still within nature, although there are no cliched blues here. The terrain is wild and rugged, mossy and slimy, and the fish – the food of Christ – is out of the water, flailing, bruised and wounded on the rocks. Its bleeding gills and bloodshot eye signify its agony, inevitably bringing to mind the crucufixion. Its blood has seeped out onto the rocks and earth beneath it as it gasps its last breaths. It is newly caught – the fishing hook still in its mouth – and these are the final few seconds of its life before it is killed. This fish is out of water, yet it has not got to the table. It is destined for a plate, yet it is still alive.

This painting unsentimentally depicts not only the harsh reality of nature, but also what man can do to nature. It is an awesome portrait, but also one that elicits enormous sympathy; this fish can feel, it knows death is near. In Schubert's Trout Quintet, writtten in the year of Courbet's birth, the trout swims and jumps playfully through the water. Presuambly this is the sort of life this trout too experienced before it was yanked unceremoniously out of its natural habitat. This painting could almost be viewed a reaction to Schubert's composition, yet it is still a celebration of the fish. The Hemingway of the art world, Courbet was a hunting, shooting, fishing, drinking man's man. As such, he shows this freshwater fish respect, painting it with a rough grace, depicting the brutality of its final moments with rough brushstrokes.

As ever with Courbet, vantage point is elusive and intriguing. There is a visual slippage – the 'portrait' is painted at fish level. Taken literally, it would have had to be painted/ sketched with the artist crouching on the ground alongside it. One wonders if in reality he'd assembled his own still life of a fish at home. Would he have caught the fish himself? Would he have eaten it?

Signed by the artist on the lower left in red paint, the painting is also inscribed with the Latin phrase 'vinculis faciebat: (made in bondage)'. John Seed reflects on what this might mean, suggesting it is a metaphor for the artist himself. In any case, this is one of the most tragic paintings I've ever seen, one that I find quite difficult to view. Courbet painted another version, which is on display in the Musee D'Orsay in Paris.