A Great Writer Insults a Great Painter

[andyfox]

Reading about the 19th century French realist painter Gustave Courbet, I came across this from one of his enemies, Alexander Dumas, written on June 6, 1871:

"From what fabulous crossing of a slug with a peacock, from what genital antitheses, from what sebaceous oozing can have been generated, for instance, this thing called M. Gustave Courbet? Under what gardener's cloche, with the help of what manure, as a result of what mixture of wine, beer, corrosive mucus and flatulent oedema can have grown this sonorous and hairy pumpkin, this aesthetic belly, this imbecilic and impotent incarnation of the Self? Wouldnt one say he was a force of God, if God--Whom this non-being has wanted to destroy--were capable of playing pranks, and could have mixed Himself up with this?"

Wow! If it's not good to hold it in, if it's healthy to let it out, Dumas must have felt great.

[Zeno]

This is excellent stuff. I liked it so much that I printed it out and stuck it on my wall by my computer. Thanks Andy.

-Zeno

[John Cole]

Great stuff. Of course, would you rather have a Courbet hanging on the wall or a first edition Dumas in the library?

[Phat Mack]

I liked Dumas as a kid, but don't think I've read him sense. The great movie adaptations of his stuff seem to have been made before WWII. The nice thing about Gustave Courbet is that he lived before anorexia became fashionable.

I guess I'll go with the painting.

[andyfox]

I have to admit I haven't read any Dumas and I knew nothing of Courbet until recently. I got interested in Manet's art after I saw The Fifer at the Norton Simon Museum out here and learning about Manet leads one back to Courbet. He was a heller, no doubt.

[crash]

another good insult:

Once at a social gathering, Gladstone said to Disraeli, "I predict, Sir, that you will die either by hanging or of some vile disease". Disraeli replied, "That all depends, sir, upon whether I embrace your principles or your mistress."