Woman in a Riding Habit (L'Amazone)

Courbet's Woman in a Riding Habit (L'Amazone), painted around 1855-59, depicts a fashionable woman on horseback with the direct, unsentimentalized approach that defined his Realism. The subject of the female equestrian was associated with modern Parisian life and independent womanhood. During this period Courbet was at the height of his powers and reputation, having scandalized and energized the art world with his Pavilion of Realism at the 1855 Universal Exposition.

Courbet's painting technique is characteristically bold, with thick impasto building solid form and a dark, earthy palette grounding the figure in physical reality. The broad brushwork and palette knife passages create the tactile surfaces that distinguish his work from academic smoothness.