The Pavilion of Realism
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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The "Pavillon du Réalisme" was a private pavilion Gustave Courbet had constructed in the margins of the Exposition universelle of 1855. Courbet erected the pavilion after he had submitted fourteen paintings for exhibition at the Exposition Universelle and three of them were rejected for lack of space, including A Burial at Ornans and his other monumental canvas The Artist's Studio.
Refusing to be denied, Courbet took matters into his own hands. He displayed forty of his paintings, including The Artist's Studio, in his own gallery called The Pavilion of Realism which was a temporary structure that he erected next door to the official Salon-like Exposition Universelle.
Although artists like Eugène Delacroix were ardent champions of his effort, the public went to the show mostly out of curiosity and to deride him. Attendance and sales were disappointing, but Courbet's status as a hero to the French avant-garde became assured. He was admired by the American James McNeill Whistler, and he became an inspiration to the younger generation of French artists including Édouard Manet and the Impressionist painters, many of whom were still in art school.
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