Leonard Baskin, Gustave Courbet

In the early 1950s, Baskin taught himself the art of wood engraving, which requires considerable skill and physical strength. This print demonstrates his extraordinary finesse. The subject is an artist who Baskin greatly admired, French painter Gustave Courbet (1819–1877). Baskin suggests the intensity of Courbet’s gaze on the world through the seeming depth and expressivity of his eyes.