Provenance
Vauthrin, by 1855 until at least 1867.[1] Laurent-Richard; (Laurent-Richard sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 23 May 1878, no. 6, as _Le Ruisseau du Puits-Noir [vallée de la Loue, Doubs]_, 13,100 francs). E. Secrétan [d. 1899], Paris.[2] Etienne-François-Haro [1827-1897] and his son, Henri Haro [1855-1911], Paris; (their sale, Galerie Sedelmeyer, Paris, 30-31 May 1892, no. 69, as _Le Ruisseau du Puits-Noir_, probably bought in); sold 15 October 1897 by Haro to (Durand-Ruel et Cie, Paris, stock no. 4447);[3] sold 19 October 1897 to Henry Osborn Havemeyer [1847-1907] and his wife, née Louisine Waldron Elder [1855-1929], New York;[4] by inheritance to their daughter, Mrs. P.H.B. Frelinghuysen, née Adaline Havemeyer [1884-1963], Morristown, New Jersey; gift 1943 to NGA.
[1] Lent to _Exposition universelle_, Paris, 1855, no. 2810, and to _Oeuvres de M.G. Courbet au Rond-Point de l'Alma_, Paris, 1867, no. 20. Vauthrin's name is spelled "Vauthrain" in the catalogue of 1855.
[2] The painting was not included in the Secrétan sale at Christie's, London, on 13 July 1889.
[3] Concerning Durand-Ruel's acquisition of the painting, see _Splendid Legacy: The Havemeyer Collection_, exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1993: 312.
[4] Frances Weitzenhoffer, _The Creation of the Havemeyer Collection, 1875-1900_, Ph.D. diss., The City University of New York, 1982: 261-262. See also Frances Weitzenhoffer, _The Havemeyers: Impressionism comes to America_, New York, 1986: 117, which mentions the sale to the Havemeyers.
Accession Number
1943.15.2
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
overall: 104 x 137 cm (40 15/16 x 53 15/16 in.) | framed: 136.53 × 170.18 × 11.11 cm (53 3/4 × 67 × 4 3/8 in.)
Classification
Painting
Credit Line
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. P.H.B. Frelinghuysen in memory of her father and mother, Mr. and Mrs. H.O. Havemeyer
Tags
Painting Impressionist & Modern (1851–1900) Oil Painting Canvas French
Background & Context
Background Story
The Stream (1855) depicts a specific stream in the Loue Valley of the Jura region—Courbet's native landscape that he painted throughout his career with the devotion of a geographer documenting his homeland. The Puits-Noir (Black Well) is a spring in the Loue Valley whose dark, deep water and rocky surroundings provided Courbet with a subject at once specific and primeval. Courbet's treatment renders the stream's darkness—its refusal to reflect light, its absorptive quality—with a materiality that makes the water seem physically present on the canvas. The thick paint surface mimics the stream's rocky bed and dark water, creating a correspondence between the painting's material and its subject's material that goes beyond representation toward equivalence. The year 1855 is pivotal: Courbet's Pavillon du Réalisme—his self-organized exhibition space outside the 1855 Exposition Universelle—established him as both a major artist and a cultural provocateur. The Stream, painted in the same year, shows that Courbet's Realism was not merely a philosophical position but a visual method rooted in specific places. His native Jura landscape was not an arbitrary choice but a commitment—painting what he knew most intimately rather than what the market preferred.
Cultural Impact
Courbet's Loue Valley paintings influenced French regional landscape painting, demonstrating that specific, local landscapes could generate art as powerful as generalized Italian vistas. The dark stream subject influenced how water's absorptive rather than reflective qualities were represented in painting, anticipating later Symbolist and abstract approaches to water. The paintings also influenced tourism and regional identity in the Jura, contributing to the cultural recognition of the Loue Valley as a landscape of artistic significance.
Why It Matters
This painting matters because it demonstrates how an artist's native landscape can inform an entire career's vision. Courbet's return to the Loue Valley was not retreat but renewal—each painting deepened his understanding of the place that shaped his seeing. For contemporary artists working in place-based traditions, Courbet's commitment to his native landscape offers a model for how deep local knowledge generates universal artistic statements.
