Courier publishes Courbet's Origine du Monde on FB, readers mistake it for a photo and get indignant

Corriere della Sera ’s Facebook page was flooded with hundreds of outraged comments following the publication of a post with links to the article giving the news (which we spread ahead of other Italian media) of the discovery of the identity of the model who posed for Gustave Courbet’sOrigine du monde. The preview of the article showed the image of the very famous 1866 painting now kept at the Musée d’Orsay in Paris: however, many Corriere readers, ignorant of what Courbet’sOrigine du monde is, mistook the painting for a photograph, railing against the newspaper guilty, according to them, of publishing indecent images.

A barrage of comments that moreover provoked hilarity and derision from those familiar with the work: some called for the work to be covered, some worried that children might see it, some with misdirected irony suggested that the Corriere send photos of their genitals, and others simply called Courbet’s work “vulgar” or asked the Corriere if the editors were not ashamed to “put things like that.” And it is also interesting to note that the title of the post clearly stated that it is a painting. Perhaps the next step to reading only the title will be? look only at the figures?

Courier publishes Courbet's Origine du Monde on FB, readers mistake it for a photo and get indignant

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