Qatar revealed this week that it is the owner of Gustave Courbet’s famous self-portrait Le Désespéré (The Desperate Man)1843-45, on display today in the Musée d’Orsay, Paris. This is the first time in 17 years that the work has been exhibited in Courbet’s native France.
The artist’s sharp, wild eyes now gaze from the same wall displaying Courbet’s other famous works, including Stonebreaker (1849) and the origin of the world (1866). The painting will be on display at the Musée d’Orsay for five years before being moved to its new home in Doha, AFP reported.
The painting was exhibited at London’s National Gallery in 2006, when it was listed as being on loan from an unknown private collector with the help of BNP Paribas.
This painting was also included in the Courbet retrospective held at the Grand Palais in Paris from 2007 to 2008. The exhibition subsequently traveled to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Musée Fabre in Montpellier. The painting was also exhibited at the Schirn Kunsthalle in Frankfurt in 2010 and 2011.
The work was later acquired by the Qatar Museums, the state agency responsible for overseeing the UAE’s art scene. It’s unclear how they acquired the artwork or how much they paid for it.
Mayasa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, director of the Qatar Museums and sister of the Gulf state’s ruler, acknowledged Qatar’s ownership of the painting during a tribute to the late Sylvain Amick at the Musée d’Orsay in Paris.
“In his honor, we are unveiling Gustave Courbet’s Le Désespéré, which will be on long-term loan to the Musée d’Orsay from the future collection of the Art Mill Museum until our museum opens,” she wrote on Instagram. “It will then be circulated across our institutions, reflecting Sylvain’s belief that art must be spread and shared to inspire the world.”
Al-Thani’s ownership revelations come as Qatar’s art scene undergoes seismic changes. The Art Mill Museum will open in 2030 and is hailed as Qatar’s future international modern and contemporary art museum. It was designed by Chilean architect Alejandro Aravena and developed by Qatar Museums in Doha.
Sheikha Al Mayassa is listed as one of the art newsTop 200 Collector. As one of the world’s largest buyers of contemporary art, she oversees art acquisitions for Qatar Museums.
