At the Source: A Courbet Landscape Rediscovered

The Arthur Ross Gallery at the University of Pennsylvania is pleased to announce that a rediscovered Gustave Courbet painting unseen for nearly 100 years will be unveiled in At the Source: A Courbet Landscape Rediscovered which will be on view from February 4–May 28, 2023. Courbet’s painting of the source of the Lison River in France, close to his birthplace, was discovered in 2016 in storage at the University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine. The painting, Gustave Courbet’s The Source of the Lison, (La Source du Lison), 1864 oil on canvas, is a 1912 bequest of Philadelphia-born Thomas W. Evans.

In 1847 Thomas W. Evans established a dental practice in Paris, France and became surgeon dentist to Napoléon III and Empress Eugénie. In 1867 he introduced nitrous oxide as an anesthetic to the European medical and dental communities. Evans was renowned for his gold-foil fillings, vulcanite dentures, and orthodontic treatments, serving royalty from Britain to Turkey. Evans also played important roles in French and American politics. Upon his death in 1897, Evans bequeathed most of his wealth to create The Thomas W. Evans Museum and Institute Society in Philadelphia. In 1912 the Society and the University of Pennsylvania signed an agreement to establish the Thomas W. Evans Museum and Dental Institute at the corner of 40th and Spruce Street which was dedicated in February 1915. In 2015 Penn Dental Medicine celebrated its 100th Anniversary of the founding of the dental school.

The Source of the Lison was conserved in 2016, scientifically examined in 2018 and authenticated by the Institut Courbet (Ornans, France) in April 2022. Curated by Lynn Marsden-Atlass, Executive Director of the Arthur Ross Gallery and University Curator, and André Dombrowski, Frances Shapiro-Weitzenhoffer Associate Professor of 19th-Century European Art at the University of Pennsylvania, At the Source: A Courbet Landscape Rediscovered showcases the infamous painter’s modern landscape practice, focusing on the motifs of grottos and waterfalls in his art of the 1850s and 1860s.

The exhibition is accompanied by a major catalogue, with new scholarship by leading Courbet scholars, including Petra ten-Doesschate Chu, Aruna D’Souza, Paul Galvez, and Mary Morton. It situates Courbet’s modern landscapes within the genre of nineteenth century plein-air painting. The exhibition includes a podcast Big Art Energy that will share the journey of Courbet’s Source du Lison from the basement of the dental school to the Arthur Ross Gallery. 

For more information on upcoming events for At the Source: A Courbet Landscape Rediscovered, please see here.

About the Arthur Ross Gallery
The Arthur Ross Gallery of the University of Pennsylvania advances scholarship, collaboration, and outreach through direct engagement with original art and artifacts. Presenting art from a wide range of media, periods, cultures, and traditions, the Gallery serves as a rich educational and cultural resource for students, faculty, scholars, artists, and the local and regional communities.

Arthur Ross Gallery at the University of Pennsylvania
220 South 34th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104
General information T: +1 215 898 2083 / Gallery front desk T: +1 215 898 1479 
Gallery hours: Tuesday–Friday 10am–5pm, Saturday & Sunday 12–5pm, closed Monday