By far his most famous picture is the gigantic _Funeral at Ornans_
(No. 143), which, as a study of the life and types in a small French
provincial town, has aptly been compared with Flaubert’s great novel
_Madame Bovary_. Each individual head in this vast composition is
a marvellous study of facial expression. In his landscapes, again,
he was by no means photographic, and he never failed to consider
the decorative effectiveness of his pictures. His influence upon
Whistler’s early work is to be judged from _The Wave_ (No. 147A). If
his landscapes retain to a certain extent the atmosphere of the studio,
such pieces as _La Remise des Chevreuils_ (No. 145A) and _Le Ruisseau
du Puits noir_ (No. 146A) clearly show that he possessed a sound
understanding of the way in which colours react upon, and modify, each
other. Courbet’s revolutionary tendencies made him take part in the
political movement of the Commune, and forced him to leave his native
country. He died in Switzerland in 1877.