Lot 368

Presents in beautiful order with an aged grey tinted surface, evidence of plaster reinforcement or repair to reverse.


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Leonard Joel makes no guarantee of the originality of mechanical or applied components. Absence of reference to such modifications does not imply that a lot is free from modifications.

Joanna Barnes Fine Art, 2001

Commissioned from Courbet in 1876, when the artist was in exile in Switzerland, it was his last work and was one of two reliefs depicting women, which he executed for the façade of a building on the corner of the quai Perdonnet and the place de l'Ancien-Port, Vevey. Representing a woman with downcast eyes with a seagull head dress she was also called "La Dame du Lac" by Courbet. It is also thought that she symbolised exile and the seagull her thoughts flying to her distant homeland. Courbet also painted "Fille aux mouettes" in Trouville in 1865, depicting a young girl with dead seagulls, also see Jules Breton's "La mouette blessée" of 1878 depicting a tender Breton girl with an injured seabird.