the desperate man gustave courbetGustave Courbet's The Desperate Man is a striking work that plunges the viewer into an intense confrontation with its subject. The face of a man, his eyes wide and his hair dishevelled, emerges from the darkness, his hands clenched on his cheeks, as if caught in a whirlwind of emotions. The expression is one of deep distress, of almost palpable anguish. Courbet, a master of realism, uses his talent here to depict not an exterior scene, but an interior