Le Pont de Fleurier

18 March 1871

The Paris Commune

After the French defeat in the Franco-Prussian War a revolutionary government, the Paris Commune, briefly took power in the city on 18 March 1871. Courbet played an active part.

5 April 1871

Courbet organizes the Federation of Artists

Some three to four hundred painters, sculptors, architects and decorators attended the Federation's first meeting in the Grand Amphitheater of the School of Medicine. Courbet chaired it and proposed reopening the Louvre and the Musée du Luxembourg, holding a Salon free of government interference and awards, and abolishing the École des Beaux-Arts and other state institutions.

16 April 1871

Elected delegate for the 6th arrondissement

In special elections on 16 April Courbet was elected delegate for the 6th arrondissement of Paris; he was given the title of Delegate of Fine Arts and on 21 April was also made a member of the Commission on Education.

16 May 1871

The fall of the Vendôme Column

On 16 May 1871, nine days before the fall of the Commune, the column whose removal Courbet had requested back in September 1870 was pulled down in a large ceremony with military bands and photographers and broke into pieces. Some witnesses said Courbet was there, others denied it.

28 May – 7 June 1871

In hiding with friends, then arrested

After the French army's final suppression of the Commune on 28 May, Courbet went into hiding in the apartments of various friends; he was arrested on 7 June.

1873

Leaves for Switzerland to escape the debt for the column

In 1873 the newly elected president of the Republic, Patrice de MacMahon, announced plans to rebuild the column at Courbet's expense. Unable to pay, he went into self-imposed exile in Switzerland to avoid bankruptcy and remained there until his death.