Approximately 160,000 Visitors: Courbet Retrospective at the Leopold Museum Drew a Record Number of Visitors

03.08.2026

The Successful Vienna Exhibition Is Now On Display at Museum Folkwang in Essen

Around 160,000 exhibition goers visited the Leopold Museum’s presentation Gustave Courbet. Realist and Rebel (19 Feb. – 21 Jun. 26), making it one of the most successful exhibitions in the history of the museum which is celebrating its 25th birthday this year. A slightly altered version of the presentation that recently came to a close in Vienna opened last week at the Museum Folkwang in Essen.

This first comprehensive Courbet retrospective in Austria had been in the making since 2018, when the Director of the Leopold Museum, Hans-Peter Wipplinger, and Niklaus Manuel Güdel, president of the Société Courbet, came up with the idea for this exhibition. They were able to drum up the support of numerous important museums and private collections for their endeavor, and brought off one of several great coups by securing the iconic masterpiece L’Origine du monde as a loan for this presentation: Arguably Courbet’s most famous work, it was the first time in over ten years, and only the fourth time overall, that the painting left the Musée d’Orsay in Paris to be taken outside of France. Owing to the long and intense period of preparation, and the exhibition’s compelling concept, curators Wipplinger and Güdel were able to gather 120 loans, some of which had never been publicly displayed before.

The catalogue accompanying the exhibition, conceived and produced in Vienna, unites essays by the most eminent Courbet experts across Europe who presented the latest findings of Courbet research. Around one year ago, the Museum Folkwang could be won as a cooperation partner. After the exhibition’s presentation at the Leopold Museum in Vienna, it is now being shown there: Titled I, Gustave Courbet. Painter and Rebel, the monographic presentation is on display in the Ruhr metropolis Essen until early November 2026.

Catalogue Accompanying the Exhibition

The exhibition is accompanied by a comprehensive catalogue in German and English: Gustave Courbet I Editors: Niklaus Manuel Güdel, Hans-Peter Wipplinger I Authors: Pierre Chessex, Dominique de Font-Réaulx, Benjamin Foudral, Niklaus Manuel Güdel, Sophie Elaine de Oliveira, Michel Hilaire, Ségolène Le Men, Stephanie Marchal, Bruno Mottin, Isolde Pludermacher, Anne-Sophie Poirot, Daniela Stöppel, Lili-Vienne Debus, Hans-Peter Wipplinger I 23.5 × 28 cm, 344 pages, 262 illustrations I Publishers: Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther und Franz König, Cologne I Sales price: EUR 39.90 I ISBN: 978-3-7533-0965-1

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