Courbet in Normandy, at Alençon through January 2027

In Alençon, in the Orne department, the Musée des beaux-arts et de la dentelle is hosting an exhibition devoted to Gustave Courbet, on view until 3 January 2027. “Gustave Courbet. Une nature engagée” unfolds in a museum where painting can be read alongside the history of craft, material and making.

The title points to the exhibition’s main question: how Courbet looks at nature not as background, but as something to study, weigh and build into paint. For artists, that means paying attention to framing, surface, and the physical way a landscape takes shape on canvas.

For painters and drawing enthusiasts, the appeal lies in Courbet’s sense of matter. His works make relief, density and texture visible, and they show how a pictorial gesture can stay closely tied to what is being observed.

Set in a museum that brings fine art and lace together, the exhibition also suggests a useful parallel: attention to detail, rhythm, and the balance between fullness and emptiness. It is a reminder that a landscape is not only seen; it is constructed by the eye and then by the hand.