through may 18th the metropolitan museum of art is showing its first retrospective of painter gustave courbet in thirty years. i don't know why i find this lapse of time so suprising, maybe because i just love his then avante garde, now luscious, emotional, baring work so captivating. in addition to some 130 paintings, the exhibition also includes a selection of nineteenth-century photographs that relate to the artist's work, especially his landscapes and nudes.
