By Luciano Migliaccio
The model in the painting Portrait of Zélie Coubert is Courbet’s sister, Zélie (1828-1875). In his letters, the painter described her as “always ill, always brave, always lovable.” According to Camesasca (1988, p. 38), judging from her facial features the model seems to be around twenty years old, which allows us to date the painting circa 1847. Critics agree in dating the work in this year or the previous year. The painter’s technical sobriety in handling painting and reality also concur to situate the work on a date close to his trip to the Netherlands. The artistic vigor of the luminous brushwork on the face and the hand that touches it, the dense layers of whites and grays that render the model’s collar in contrast with the gloomy background and the black volumes of her dress and hairstyle, all contribute to the creation of a psychological and emotional intensity comparable to the portraits of Saskia, by Rembrandt. Here we are faced with the “masterly beginnings” of the supposedly self-taught painter Courbet, that certainly impressed Cézanne and set the cornerstones of contemporary realism in painting.

— Luciano Migliaccio, 1998

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