What was Courbet's core artistic philosophy?
My core philosophy is that art should depict only what can be seen and experienced directly. I believe that to be an artist, one must be a living person, and thus I paint what I see. Mythology, allegories, and invented subjects are foreign to me; they are the work of children or of poets detached from the material world. Truth lies in the tangible, in the empirical reality that surrounds us.
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