Madame Auguste Cuoq

Madame Auguste Cuoq is a mid-19th-century portrait by French artist Gustave Courbet. Done in oil on canvas, the painting depicts Mathilde Desportes (Madame Auguste Cuoq), a French model who often sat for portraits. The painting is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Description
Courbet painted Madame sometime between 1852 and 1857, and displayed it at an exhibition of his in 1867. The subject of the portrait, the titular Madame Auguste Cuoq, was painted by several notable artists, including Courbet and Jean-Jacques Henner. Notably, Cuoq's husband rejected the portrait, feeling that it did not capture his wife's beauty. Citing its large scale and intimate setting, the painting has been described as one of Courbet's most unusual works. The painting was eventually acquired by the Louisine Havemeyer and later donated by the Havemeyer Collection to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.