Gustave Courbet — A Burial at Ornans

A Burial at Ornans (1849–50) is the manifesto of Realism. Courbet painted an ordinary village funeral in his hometown — nearly life-size, on a monumental ten-by-twenty-foot canvas normally reserved for history or religious grandeur. Critics were scandalised that common townspeople, a gaping grave and a plain dog were granted the scale of kings and saints. Its debut at the Salon of 1850 made Courbet instantly famous; it now hangs in the Musée d'Orsay.

The palette is deliberately sombre and true-to-life: a broad frieze of black mourning coats and dresses, punctuated by the beadles' red robes, the priest's white surplice, and a dull grey autumn sky over pale limestone cliffs. Courbet applied paint thickly, often with a palette knife, refusing the polished finish of academic art.

Where to look: the horizon runs low and the figures line up in a long, democratic frieze — no single hero. To shoot in this spirit, photograph a real gathering as a wide horizontal band of people, keep the tones muted and let one or two small colour notes break the black.