On the occasion of the bicentenary of the birth of Gustave Courbet (1819-1877), the Museum of Modern Art Richard Anacréon and the Museum of Art and History of Granville organize an exhibition devoted to his sea landscapes, from 2 June to 22 September 2019. 

This project follows the rediscovery of a painting of the collections of the Granville Museum of Art and History, The View of Lake Geneva (1876), formally attributed to Gustave Courbet by Bruno Mottin, Curator General of Heritage at the Center de Research and Restoration of the Museums of France (C2RMF), in 2017.

The exhibition 'Paysages de mer' will put La Vue du lac Léman in perspective of the sea landscapes created by Courbet in Palavas and Normandy.  The exhibition presents, through a dozen works, the artist's artistic progression, the evolution of his marine representations, to his late work La Vue du lac Léman. The choice of works focuses on some emblematic paintings and presenting with Lake Geneva View similarities in the choice of subject and composition. It is a question of establishing parallels between the shores, to show the continuity between the representations of the Mediterranean, the Channel and the Léman, how the inspiration born of the discovery of the seaside finds an echo in the landscapes of exile.