The Orsay Museum in Paris is now showcasing a rare masterpiece by French realist painter Gustave Courbet, titled "The Desperate Man," which depicts the artist with a haunting, hallucinated expression. This remarkable oil painting from 1844-1845 has been loaned to the Orsay Museum for at least five years by Qatar Museums, the emirate's museum development organization, which acquired the work from a private owner at an undisclosed date and price.

This small-format oil on canvas painting, measuring 45 by 54 centimeters, is globally renowned but rarely exhibited publicly. The work had not been displayed to French audiences since the 2007-2008 retrospective dedicated to the master of realism (1819-1877), which traveled from Paris to New York and then to Montpellier in southern France. Prior to that major international exhibition, this painting, created when Courbet was only 25 years old, had not been shown since the late 1970s, according to the Orsay Museum, which houses about thirty of the painter's works in its collection, including "A Burial at Ornans."

"The Desperate Man is unique in Courbet's production of self-portraits because it is the most hallucinated, the most powerful in terms of expressing emotions and feelings," explained Paul Perrin, chief curator at the Orsay Museum. In this striking work, the young painter from eastern France (Ornans), who had come to Paris seeking success, portrays himself with features disfigured by terror, fear, or madness, clutching his head, with his arms and face captured in stunning chiaroscuro lighting effects.

"It's truly a demonstration of pictorial mastery," commented Perrin about the technical brilliance displayed in the painting. The work showcases Courbet's exceptional skill even at a young age, as he dramatically rendered the intense psychological state through masterful use of light and shadow.

Like many other Courbet paintings, "The Desperate Man," also known as "Self-Portrait of the Artist" or "Despair," has never been part of French public collections and remained in private hands for an extended period. Notably, Jacques Lacan, the father of French psychoanalysis, once owned another Courbet masterpiece, "The Origin of the World," which eventually joined the Orsay Museum's collection in 1995.

The scattered nature of the artist's works is largely due to his legal and political troubles. Condemned in France for his participation in the Paris Commune uprising of 1871, Courbet fled to Switzerland to escape imprisonment and was forced to sell his paintings to pay the heavy penalty imposed by the courts. This difficult period in his life resulted in many of his works being dispersed among private collectors worldwide.

At the time of the major 2007-2008 retrospective, "The Desperate Man" was owned by private individuals, and French bank BNP Paribas facilitated its loan for the exhibition, according to a source close to the matter. The Qataris subsequently acquired the painting with the intention of displaying it in their future contemporary and modern art museum, the Art Mill Museum in Doha, whose construction is scheduled to be completed by 2030.