Femme nue couchée
Painting by Gustave Courbet
Femme nue couchée () is an 1862 painting by French Realist painter Gustave Courbet (1819–1877). It depicts a young dark-haired woman reclining on a couch, wearing only a pair of shoes and stockings. Behind her, partly drawn red curtains reveal an overcast sky seen through a closed window. The work is likely influenced by Goya's "La maja desnuda".
The painting was initially owned by Alexandre Berthier and later by Marcell Nemes. In 1913, it was bought by the Hungarian collector Ferenc Hatvany. At one time, he painted a copy of the painting and, as a practical joke, sent it to be exhibited as the original at a Belgrade exhibition of French painting in 1939. Together with the rest of Hatvany's collection, the painting was looted from a Budapest bank vault during the 1945 Soviet conquest of the city in World War II. After it was briefly seen attached to the tarpaulin of a Soviet military vehicle on Buda Castle Hill, the painting appeared to have vanished without a trace.
It surfaced again in 2000 and 2003, when it was offered for sale first to the Museum of Fine Arts and then to the Commission for Art Recovery (CAR) by a Slovak man claiming to be an antiques dealer, but who appeared to his interlocutors to be involved with the Slovak organised crime scene. The dealer produced an affidavit, judged reliable by the CAR, stating that the painting was given by Soviet soldiers to a doctor from a village near Bratislava in return for his medical treatment of a wounded soldier. An inspection of the picture's craquelure determined that the painting was indeed the original and not Hatvany's copy.
After five years of negotiations, Interpol involvement and diplomatic wrangling between the US and Slovakian government, the CAR managed to acquire the painting for Hatvany's heirs in exchange for a US$300,000 reward. It was shown to the public for the first time since the 1930s in a 2007 Courbet exposition at the Grand Palais in Paris. The painting was sold at auction on 9 November 2015 for 15.3 million U.S. dollars, four times the previous auction record for a Courbet painting.
Footnotes.
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Gustave Courbet
French realist painter (1819–1877)
Jean Désiré Gustave Courbet ( ; ; ; 10 June 1819 – 31 December 1877) was a French painter who led the Realism movement in 19th-century French painting. Committed to painting only what he could see, he rejected academic convention and the Romanticism of the previous generation of visual artists. His independence set an example that was important to later artists, such as the Impressionists and the Cubists. Courbet occupies an important place in 19th-century French painting as an innovator and as an artist willing to make bold social statements through his work.
Courbet's paintings of the late 1840s and early 1850s brought him his first recognition. They challenged convention by depicting unidealized peasants and workers, often on a grand scale traditionally reserved for paintings of religious or historical subjects. Courbet's subsequent paintings were mostly of a less overtly political character: landscapes, seascapes, hunting scenes, nudes, and still lifes. Courbet was imprisoned for six months in 1871 for his involvement with the Paris Commune and lived in exile in Switzerland from 1873 until his death four years later.
Biography.
Gustave Courbet was born in 1819 to Régis and Sylvie Oudot Courbet in Ornans (department of Doubs). Anti-monarchical feelings prevailed in the household. (His maternal grandfather fought in the French Revolution.) Courbet's sisters, Zoé, Zélie, and Juliette were his first models for drawing and painting. After moving to Paris he often returned home to Ornans to hunt, fish, and find inspiration.
Courbet went to Paris in 1839 and worked at the studio of Steuben and Hesse. An independent spirit, he soon left, preferring to develop his own style by studying the paintings of Spanish, Flemish and French masters in the Louvre, and painting copies of their work.
Courbet's first works were an "Odalisque" inspired by the writing of Victor Hugo and a "Lélia" illustrating George Sand, but he soon abandoned literary influences, choosing instead to base his paintings on observed reality. Among his paintings of the early 1840s are several self-portraits, Romantic in conception, in which the artist portrayed himself in various roles. These include "Self-Portrait with Black Dog" (c. 1842–44, accepted for exhibition at the 1844 Paris Salon), the theatrical "Self-Portrait" which is also known as "Desperate Man" (c. 1843–45), "Lovers in the Countryside" (1844, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Lyon), "The Sculptor" (1845), "The Wounded Man" (1844–54, Musée d'Orsay, Paris), "The Cellist, Self-Portrait" (1847, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, shown at the 1848 Salon), and "Man with a Pipe" (1848–49, Musée Fabre, Montpellier).
Trips to the Netherlands and Belgium in 1846–47 strengthened Courbet's belief that painters should portray the life around them, as Rembrandt, Hals and other Dutch masters had. By 1848, he had gained supporters among the younger critics, the Neo-romantics and Realists, notably Champfleury.
Courbet achieved his first Salon success in 1849 with his painting "After Dinner at Ornans". The work, reminiscent of Chardin and Le Nain, earned Courbet a gold medal and was purchased by the state. The gold medal meant that his works would no longer require jury approval for exhibition at the Salon—an exemption Courbet enjoyed until 1857 (when the rule changed).
In 1849–50, Courbet painted "The Stone Breakers" (destroyed in the Allied Bombing of Dresden in 1945), which Proudhon admired as an icon of peasant life; it has been called "the first of his great works". The painting was inspired by a scene Courbet witnessed on the roadside. He later explained to Champfleury and the writer Francis Wey: "It is not often that one encounters so complete an expression of poverty and so, right then and there I got the idea for a painting. I told them to come to my studio the next morning."
Realism.
Courbet's work belonged neither to the predominant Romantic nor Neoclassical schools. History painting, which the Paris Salon esteemed as a painter's highest calling, did not interest him, for he believed that "the artists of one century [are] basically incapable of reproducing the aspect of a past or future century ..." Instead, he maintained that the only possible source for living art is the artist's own experience. He and Jean-François Millet would find inspiration painting the life of peasants and workers.
Courbet painted figurative compositions, landscapes, seascapes, and still lifes. He courted controversy by addressing social issues in his work, and by painting subjects that were considered vulgar, such as the rural bourgeoisie, peasants, and working conditions of the poor. His work, along with that of Honoré Daumier and Jean-François Millet, became known as "Realism". For Courbet realism dealt not with the perfection of line and form, but entailed spontaneous and rough handling of paint, suggesting direct observation by the artist while portraying the irregularities in nature. He depicted the harshness of life, and in doing so challenged contemporary academic ideas of art. One of the distinctive features of Courbet's Realism was his lifelong attachment to his native province, the Franche-Comté, and of his birthplace, Ornans.
"The Stone Breakers".
Considered to be the first of Courbet's great works, "The Stone Breakers" of 1849 is an example of social realism that caused a sensation when it was first exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1850. The work was based on two men, one young and one old, whom Courbet discovered engaged in backbreaking labor on the side of the road when he returned to Ornans for an eight-month visit in October 1848. On his inspiration, Courbet told his friends and art critics Francis Wey and Jules Champfleury, "It is not often that one encounters so complete an expression of poverty and so, right then and there I got the idea for a painting."
While other artists had depicted the plight of the rural poor, Courbet's peasants are not idealized like those in works such as Breton's 1854 painting, "The Gleaners".
During World War II, from 13 to 15 February 1945, the Allies continuously bombed the city of Dresden, Germany. German troops hastily loaded artworks from Dresden's galleries and museums onto trucks. "The Stone Breakers" was destroyed, along with 153 other paintings, when a transport vehicle moving the pictures to the Königstein Fortress, near Dresden, was bombed by Allied forces.
"A Burial at Ornans".
The Salon of 1850–1851 found him triumphant with "The Stone Breakers", the "Peasants of Flagey" and "A Burial at Ornans". The "Burial", one of Courbet's most important works, records the funeral of his grand uncle which he attended in September 1848. People who attended the funeral were the models for the painting. Previously, models had been used as actors in historical narratives, but in "Burial" Courbet said he "painted the very people who had been present at the interment, all the townspeople". The result is a realistic presentation of them and life in Ornans.
The vast painting, measuring , drew both praise and fierce denunciations from critics and the public, in part because it upset convention by depicting a prosaic ritual on a scale which would previously have been reserved for a religious or royal subject.
According to art historian Sarah Faunce, "In Paris, the "Burial" was judged as a work that had thrust itself into the grand tradition of history painting, like an upstart in dirty boots crashing a genteel party, and in terms of that tradition it was, of course, found wanting." The painting lacks the sentimental rhetoric that was expected in a genre work: Courbet's mourners make no theatrical gestures of grief, and their faces seemed more caricatured than ennobled. The critics accused Courbet of a deliberate pursuit of ugliness.
Eventually, the public grew more interested in the new Realist approach, and the lavish, decadent fantasy of Romanticism lost popularity. Courbet well understood the importance of the painting, and said of it, ""Burial at Ornans" was in reality the burial of romanticism."
Courbet became a celebrity and was spoken of as a genius, a "terrible socialist" and a "savage". He actively encouraged the public's perception of him as an unschooled peasant, while his ambition, his bold pronouncements to journalists, and his insistence on depicting his own life in his art gave him a reputation for unbridled vanity.
Courbet associated his ideas of realism in art with political anarchism, and, having gained an audience, he promoted political ideas by writing politically motivated essays and dissertations. His familiar visage was the object of frequent caricature in the popular French press.
In 1850, Courbet wrote to a friend:
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During the 1850s, Courbet painted numerous figurative works using common folk and friends as his subjects, such as "Village Damsels" (1852), "The Wrestlers" (1853), "The Bathers" (1853), "The Sleeping Spinner" (1853), and "The Wheat Sifters" (1854).
"The Artist's Studio".
In 1855, Courbet submitted fourteen paintings for exhibition at the "Exposition Universelle". Three were rejected for lack of space, including "A Burial at Ornans" and his other monumental canvas "The Artist's Studio". Refusing to be denied, Courbet took matters into his own hands. He displayed forty of his paintings, including "The Artist's Studio", in his gallery called "The Pavilion of Realism" (Pavillon du Réalisme) which was a temporary structure that he erected next door to the official Salon-like "Exposition Universelle".
The work is an allegory of Courbet's life as a painter, seen as a heroic venture, in which he is flanked by friends and admirers on the right, and challenges and opposition to the left. Friends on the right include the art critics Champfleury, and Charles Baudelaire, and art collector Alfred Bruyas. On the left are figures (priest, prostitute, grave digger, merchant, and others) who represent what Courbet described in a letter to Champfleury as "the other world of trivial life, the people, misery, poverty, wealth, the exploited and the exploiters, the people who live off death."
In the foreground of the left-hand side is a man with dogs, who was not mentioned in Courbet's letter to Champfleury. X-rays show he was painted later, but his role in the painting is important: he is an allegory of the then-current French Emperor, Napoleon III, identified by his famous hunting dogs and iconic twirled mustache. By placing him on the left, Courbet publicly shows his disdain for the emperor and depicts him as a criminal, suggesting that his "ownership" of France is an illegal one.
Although artists like Eugène Delacroix were ardent champions of his effort, the public went to the show mostly out of curiosity and to deride him. Attendance and sales were disappointing, but Courbet's status as a hero to the French avant-garde became assured. He was admired by the American James Abbott McNeill Whistler, and he became an inspiration to the younger generation of French artists including Édouard Manet and the Impressionist painters. "The Artist's Studio" was recognized as a masterpiece by Delacroix, Baudelaire, and Champfleury, if not by the public.
Seascapes.
While Courbet's seascapes, painted during his many visits to the northern coast of France in the late 1860s, were decidedly less controversial than his salon submissions, they furthered his contributions (willing or otherwise) to realism with their emphasis on both the beauty and danger of the natural world. There is a distinct range in the tones of this period with "The Calm Sea" (1869) depicting the serenity of the receded tide, and "The Sailboat" (c. 1869) showing a sailboat wrestling with violent tides.
Realist manifesto.
Courbet wrote a Realist manifesto for the introduction to the catalogue of this independent, personal exhibition, echoing the tone of the period's political manifestos. In it, he asserts his goal as an artist is "to translate the customs, the ideas, the appearance of my epoch according to my own estimation."
<templatestyles src="Template:Blockquote/styles.css" />The title of Realist was thrust upon me just as the title of Romantic was imposed upon the men of 1830. Titles have never given a true idea of things: if it were otherwise, the works would be unnecessary.
Without expanding on the greater or lesser accuracy of a name that nobody, I should hope, can really be expected to understand, I will limit myself to a few words of elucidation in order to cut short the misunderstandings.
I have studied the art of the ancients and the art of the moderns, avoiding any preconceived system and without prejudice. I no longer wanted to imitate the one than to copy the other; nor, furthermore, was it my intention to attain the trivial goal of "art for art's sake". No! I simply wanted to draw forth, from a complete acquaintance with tradition, the reasoned and independent consciousness of my own individuality.
To know in order to do, that was my idea. To be in a position to translate the customs, the ideas, the appearance of my time, according to my own estimation; to be not only a painter but a man as well; in short, to create living art – this is my goal. (Gustave Courbet, 1855)
Notoriety.
In the Salon of 1857, Courbet showed six paintings. These included "Young Ladies on the Banks of the Seine (Summer)", depicting two prostitutes under a tree, as well as the first of many hunting scenes Courbet was to paint during the remainder of his life: "Hind at Bay in the Snow" and "The Quarry".
"Young Ladies on the Banks of the Seine", painted in 1856, provoked a scandal. Art critics accustomed to conventional, "timeless" nude women in landscapes were shocked by Courbet's depiction of modern women casually displaying their undergarments.
By exhibiting sensational works alongside hunting scenes, of the sort that had brought popular success to the English painter Edwin Landseer, Courbet guaranteed himself "both notoriety and sales".
During the 1860s, Courbet painted a series of increasingly erotic works such as "Femme nue couchée", culminating in "The Origin of the World (L'Origine du monde)" (1866), which depicts female genitalia and was not publicly exhibited until 1988, and "Sleep" (1866), featuring two women in bed. The latter painting became the subject of a police report when it was exhibited by a picture dealer in 1872.
Until about 1861, Napoléon's regime had exhibited authoritarian characteristics, using press censorship to prevent the spread of opposition, manipulating elections, and depriving Parliament of the right to free debate or any real power. In the 1860s, however, Napoléon III made more concessions to placate his liberal opponents. This change began by allowing free debates in Parliament and public reports of parliamentary debates. Press censorship, too, was relaxed and culminated in the appointment of the Liberal Émile Ollivier, previously a leader of the opposition to Napoléon's regime, as the "de facto" Prime Minister in 1870. As a sign of appeasement to the Liberals who admired Courbet, Napoleon III nominated him to the Legion of Honour in 1870. His refusal of the cross of the Legion of Honour angered those in power but made him immensely popular with those who opposed the prevailing regime.
Courbet and the Paris Commune.
On 4 September 1870, during the Franco-Prussian War, Courbet made a proposal that later came back to haunt him. He wrote a letter to the Government of National Defense, proposing that the column in the Place Vendôme, erected by Napoleon I to honour the victories of the French Army, be taken down. He wrote:
<templatestyles src="Template:Blockquote/styles.css" />In as much as the Vendôme Column is a monument devoid of all artistic value, tending to perpetuate by its expression the ideas of war and conquest of the past imperial dynasty, which are reproved by a republican nation's sentiment, citizen Courbet expresses the wish that the National Defense government will authorize him to disassemble this column." Courbet proposed that the Column be moved to a more appropriate place, such as the Hotel des Invalides, a military hospital. He also wrote an open letter addressed to the German Army and to German artists, proposing that German and French cannons should be melted down and crowned with a liberty cap, and made into a new monument on Place Vendôme, dedicated to the federation of the German and French people. The Government of National Defense did nothing about his suggestion to tear down the column, but it was not forgotten.
On 18 March, in the aftermath of the French defeat in the Franco-Prussian War, a revolutionary government called the Paris Commune briefly took power in the city. Courbet played an active part and organized a Federation of Artists, which held its first meeting on 5 April in the Grand Amphitheater of the School of Medicine. Some three hundred to four hundred painters, sculptors, architects, and decorators attended. There were some famous names on the list of members, including André Gill, Honoré Daumier, Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, Eugène Pottier, Jules Dalou, and Édouard Manet. Manet was not in Paris during the Commune and did not attend, and Corot, who was seventy-five years old, stayed in a country house and his studio during the Commune, not taking part in the political events.
Courbet chaired the meeting and proposed that the Louvre and the Musée du Luxembourg, the two major art museums of Paris, closed during the uprising, be reopened as soon as possible and that the traditional annual exhibit called the Salon be held as in years past, but with radical differences. He proposed that the Salon should be free of any government interference or rewards to preferred artists; no medals or government commissions would be given. Furthermore, he called for the abolition of the most famous state institutions of French art; the École des Beaux-Arts, the French Academy in Rome, the French School at Athens, and the Fine Arts section of the Institute of France.
On 12 April, the Executive Committee of the Commune gave Courbet, though he was not yet officially a member of the Commune, the assignment of opening the museums and organizing the Salon. They issued the following decree at the same meeting: "The Column of the Place Vendôme will be demolished." On 16 April, special elections were held to replace more moderate members of the Commune who had resigned their seats, and Courbet was elected as a delegate for the 6th arrondissement of Paris. He was given the title of Delegate of Fine Arts, and on 21 April he was also made a member of the Commission on Education. At the meeting of the Commission on 27 April, the minutes reported that Courbet requested the demolition of the Vendôme column be carried out and that the column would be replaced by an allegorical figure representing the taking of power of the Commune on 18 March.
Nonetheless, Courbet was a dissident by nature, and he was soon in opposition with the majority of the Commune members on some of its measures. He was one of a minority of Commune Members who opposed the creation of a Committee on Public Safety, modeled on the committee of the same name which carried out the Reign of Terror during the French Revolution.
Courbet opposed the Commune on another more serious matter: the arrest of his friend Gustave Chaudey, a prominent socialist, magistrate, and journalist, whose portrait Courbet had painted. The popular Commune newspaper, "Le Père Duchesne", accused Chaudey, when he was briefly deputy mayor of the 9th arrondissement before the Commune was formed, of ordering soldiers to fire on a crowd that had surrounded the Hôtel de Ville. Courbet's opposition was of no use; on 23 May 1871, in the final days of the Commune, Chaudey was shot by a Commune firing squad. According to some sources Courbet resigned from the Commune in protest.
On 13 May, on the proposal of Courbet, the Paris house of Adolphe Thiers, the chief executive of the French government, was demolished, and his art collection confiscated. Courbet proposed that the confiscated art be given to the Louvre and other museums, but the director of the Louvre refused to accept it. On 16 May, just nine days before the fall of the Commune, in a large ceremony with military bands and photographers, the Vendôme column was pulled down and broke into pieces. Some witnesses said Courbet was there, others denied it. The following day, the Federation of Artists debated dismissing directors of the Louvre and of the Luxembourg museums, suspected by some in the Commune of having secret contacts with the French government, and appointed new heads of the museums.
According to one legend, Courbet defended the Louvre and other museums against "looting mobs", but there are no records of any such attacks on the museums. The only real threat to the Louvre came during "Bloody Week", 21–28 May 1871, when a unit of Communards, led by a Commune general, Jules Bergeret, set fire to the Tuileries Palace, next to the Louvre. The fire spread to the library of the Louvre, which was destroyed, but the efforts of museum curators and firemen saved the art gallery.
After the final suppression of the Commune by the French army on 28 May, Courbet went into hiding in the apartments of different friends. He was arrested on 7 June. At his trial before a military tribunal on 14 August, Courbet argued that he had only joined the Commune to pacify it and that he had wanted to move the Vendôme Column, not destroy it. He said he had only belonged to the Commune for a short period, and rarely attended its meetings. He was convicted, but given a lighter sentence than other Commune leaders: six months in prison and a fine of five hundred francs. Serving part of his sentence in the Sainte-Pélagie Prison in Paris, he was allowed an easel and paints, but he could not have models pose for him. He did a famous series of still-life paintings of flowers and fruit during his confinement.
Exile and death.
Courbet completed his prison sentence on 2 March 1872, but his problems caused by the destruction of the Vendôme Column were still not over. In 1873, the newly elected president of the Republic, Patrice de MacMahon, announced plans to rebuild the column, with the cost to be paid by Courbet. Unable to pay, Courbet went into a self-imposed exile in Switzerland to avoid bankruptcy. In the following years, he participated in Swiss regional and national exhibitions. Surveilled by the Swiss intelligence service, he enjoyed in the small Swiss art world the reputation as head of the "realist school" and inspired younger artists such as Auguste Baud-Bovy and Ferdinand Hodler.
Important works from this period include several paintings of trout, "hooked and bleeding from the gills", that have been interpreted as allegorical self-portraits of the exiled artist. In his final years, Courbet painted landscapes, including several scenes of water mysteriously emerging from the depths of the earth in the Jura Mountains of the France–Switzerland border. Courbet also worked on sculpture during his exile. Previously, in the early 1860s, he had produced a few sculptures, one of which – the "Fisherman of Chavots" (1862) – he donated to Ornans for a public fountain, but it was removed after Courbet's arrest.
In May 1877, the state set the final cost of reconstructing the Vendôme Column at 323,000 francs for Courbet to repay in annual installments of 10,000 francs for the next 33 years. On 31 December 1877, a day before the first installment was due, Courbet died, aged 58, in La Tour-de-Peilz, Switzerland, of a liver disease aggravated by heavy drinking.
Legacy.
Courbet was admired by many younger artists. Claude Monet included a portrait of Courbet in his own version of "Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe" from 1865–1866 (Musée d'Orsay, Paris). Courbet's particular kind of realism influenced many artists to follow, notably among them the German painters of the Leibl circle, James McNeill Whistler, and Paul Cézanne. Courbet's influence can also be seen in the work of Edward Hopper, whose "Bridge in Paris" (1906) and "Approaching a City" (1946) have been described as Freudian echoes of Courbet's "The Source of the Loue" and "The Origin of the World". His pupils included Henri Fantin-Latour, Hector Hanoteau and Olaf Isaachsen.
Courbet once wrote this in a letter:
<templatestyles src="Template:Blockquote/styles.css" />I have always lived in freedom; let me end my life free; when I am dead let this be said of me: 'He belonged to no school, to no church, to no institution, to no academy, least of all to any régime except the régime of liberty.'
Courbet and Cubism.
Two 19th-century artists prepared the way for the emergence of Cubism in the 20th century: Courbet and Cézanne. Cézanne's contributions are well-known. Courbet's importance was announced by Guillaume Apollinaire, poet-spokesperson for the Cubists. Writing in "Les Peintres Cubistes, Méditations Esthétiques" (1913) he declared, "Courbet is the father of the new painters." Jean Metzinger and Albert Gleizes often portrayed Courbet as the father of all modern art.
Both artists sought to transcend the conventional methods of rendering nature; Cézanne through a dialectical method revealing the process of seeing, Courbet by his materialism. The Cubists would combine these two approaches in developing a revolution in art.
On a formal level, Courbet wished to convey the physical characteristics of what he was painting: its density, weight, and texture. Art critic John Berger said: "No painter before Courbet was ever able to emphasize so uncompromisingly the density and weight of what he was painting." This emphasis on material reality endowed his subjects with dignity. Berger observed that the Cubist painters "were at great pains to establish the physical presence of what they were representing. And in this, they are the heirs of Courbet."
Nazi-looted art.
During the Third Reich (1933–1945) Jewish art collectors throughout Europe had their property seized as part of the Holocaust. Many artworks created by Courbet were looted by Nazis and their agents during this period and have only recently been reclaimed by the families of the previous owners.
Courbet's "La Falaise d'Etretat" was owned by the Jewish collector Marc Wolfson and his wife Erna, who both were murdered in Auschwitz. After disappearing during the Nazi occupation of France, it reappeared years later at the musée d'Orsay.
The great Hungarian Jewish collector Baron Mor Lipot Herzog owned several Courbet artworks, including "Le Chateau de Blonay (Neige)" (c. 1875, "The Chateau of Blonay (Snow)", now at the Budapest Museum of Fine Arts), and Courbet's most infamous work — ("The Origin of the World"). His was looted by Nazis and many are still missing.
Gustav Courbet's paintings "Village Girl With Goat", "The Father", and "Landscape With Rocks" were discovered in the Gurlitt Trove of art stashed in Munich. It is not known to whom they belonged.
Josephine Weinmann and her family, who were German Jews, had owned "Le Grand Pont" before they were forced to flee. The Nazi militant Herbert Schaefer acquired it and loaned it to the Yale University Art Gallery, against whom the Weinmanns filed a claim.
The French "Database of Art Objects at the Jeu de Paume (Cultural Plunder by the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg)" has 41 entries for Courbet.
In March 2023, a museum at the University of Cambridge, in the United Kingdom, returned a painting "La Ronde Enfantine" by Gustave Courbet, which was stolen in 1941 by the Nazis in Paris. The canvas belonged to a Jewish member of the Resistance. The Spoliation Advisory Panel, a body created in 2000 by the British government, concluded on 28 March "that the painting was stolen by the Nazi occupation forces because Robert Bing was Jewish".
References.
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Further reading.
Monographs on the art and life of Courbet have been written by Estignard (Paris, 1874), D'Ideville (Paris, 1878), Silvestre in "Les artistes français" (Paris, 1878), Isham in Van Dyke's "Modern French Masters" (New York, 1896), Meier-Graefe, "Corot and Courbet" (Leipzig, 1905), Cazier (Paris, 1906), Riat (Paris, 1906), Muther (Berlin, 1906), Robin (Paris, 1909), Benedite (Paris, 1911) and Lazár Béla (Paris, 1911). Consult also Muther, "History of Modern Painting", volume ii (London, 1896, 1907); Patoux, "Courbet" in "Les artistes célèbres" and "La vérité sur Courbet" (Paris, 1879); Le Men, "Courbet" (New York, 2008).

Naked Woman Sleeping by the Water
Painting by Félix Vallotton
Naked Woman Sleeping by the Water (French: "Femme nue dormant au bord de l'eau") is an oil on canvas painting by the Swiss and French artist Félix Vallotton, from 1926. It was given to the Strasbourg museum by Vallotton's widow in 1926 and is now in the Strasbourg Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art. Its inventory number is 55.974.0.879.
The woman's body, with its greenish shadows and uncomfortable posture, is deliberately depicted in an anti-naturalistic manner. The three rowing men on the right edge of the painting are supposed to be the products of the woman's dream. In any case, their movement and activity contrast with the sleeper's indolence and inertia.
References.
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The Nude Woman (1949 film)
1949 film
The Nude Woman (French: La femme nue) is a 1949 French drama film directed by André Berthomieu and starring Yves Vincent, Gisèle Pascal and Jean Tissier. It is based on the 1909 play of the same title by Henry Bataille. The film's sets were designed by the art director Raymond Nègre.
Synopsis.
The artist Pierre Bernier has earned fame for his painting "The Nude Woman" the model for which Loulou he has subsequently married. Now however Pierre is in love with a high society lady. In his her desperation to keep him Loulou attempts suicide.

The Nude Woman (1932 film)
1932 film
The Nude Woman (French: La Femme nue) is a 1932 French drama film directed by Jean-Paul Paulin and starring Florelle, Raymond Rouleau and Constant Rémy. The film is based on a play by Henry Bataille which has been adapted on several occasions. The fim is Paulin's directorial debut and a remake of the film by Léonce Perret, released in 1926 ("The Nude Woman)."
The film's sets were designed by Lazare Meerson.
References.
Notes
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Bibliography

Woman on a Black Divan
Painting by Jean-Jacques Henner
Woman on a Black Divan (French: La femme au divan noir), also known simply as Recumbent Woman (Femme couchée) is a 1869 painting by the French artist Jean-Jacques Henner. It is one of the 44 Henner paintings of the Musée des Beaux-Arts of Mulhouse. Its inventory number is D.58.1.22.
The painting was shown at the Paris Salon of 1869, and bought for the collection of the "Société industrielle de Mulhouse" (from which the Musée des Beaux-Arts originated) by the widow of Daniel Dollfus the same year. A much smaller version of the painting is kept in the Musée national Jean-Jacques Henner, in Paris,


Violeta de Outono
Brazilian progressive rock band
Violeta de Outono (Portuguese for Autumn Violet) is a Brazilian psychedelic/progressive rock band from São Paulo. Heavily influenced by The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin and Gong, they were originally a post-punk band with some psychedelic elements intertwined, but would gradually drop their post-punk influences and add more prog elements to their sonority as time went by.
The band underwent numerous changes in its line-up since its inception; the only founding member remaining today is vocalist/guitarist Fabio Golfetti.
History.
Fabio Golfetti founded Violeta de Outono in 1985 alongside Cláudio Souza; both had just parted ways with pioneering New Romantic band Zero. They would later be joined by Angelo Pastorello, and with this line-up they released a demo tape, "Memories", in the same year. The tape got the attention of independent record label Wop-Bop Records, that released their first recording, the extended play "Reflexos da Noite", in 1986.
In 1987, Violeta de Outono's eponymous debut was released through RCA Records. It was very well-received; particular praise went to their cover of The Beatles' song "Tomorrow Never Knows".
In 1988 they released a four-track EP called "The Early Years", containing cover versions of The Rolling Stones' "Citadel", Pink Floyd's "Interstellar Overdrive", The Beatles' "Within You Without You" and Gong's "Blues for Findlay". Those recordings trace to as far as 1985–1986. In the next year, their second studio album, "Em Toda Parte", was released by Ariola Records. Beginning with this album, Violeta de Outono would drop their previous post-punk instrumentation, heading towards a more progressive and experimental vein.
In 1990, Cláudio Souza left the band, and was replaced by Cláudio Fontes (Souza would return to the band in 1993 though). From 1993 to 1995, Violeta de Outono entered a short hiatus period; they returned to active with a live album, "Eclipse", and their third full-length, "Mulher na Montanha", that began to be recorded in 1995 but would be released only in 1999. In 2000, they would release their second live album, "Live at Rio ArtRock Festival '97", a recording of their performance at the in Rio de Janeiro in 1997. (A DVD containing the footage of their performance at the festival would be released 15 years later.) During Violeta de Outono's hiatus, Golfetti released three albums with The Invisible Opera Company of Tibet (Tropical Version Brazil), a side project he formed in 1988; however, the project was not as successful and memorable as Violeta de Outono itself and would come to an end in 1995, only to return in 2010.
Also in 2000, Violeta de Outono changed its line-up almost completely, with Gregor Izidro replacing Cláudio Souza and Sandro Garcia replacing Pastorello. However, they would return for the recording of the band's fourth studio album in 2003, "Ilhas", that was released in 2005.
"Violeta de Outono & Orquestra", their first video release, came out in 2006, recorded during a performance in São Paulo two years prior, with the special participation of the USP Symphonic Orchestra. In the same year, Pastorello left the band and was replaced by Gabriel Costa, while new member Fernando Cardoso assumed the position of keyboardist. With this line-up they released their fifth full-length album (and seventh studio release overall), "Volume 7", in 2007.
In 2009, Cláudio Souza left Violeta de Outono for the third time, but beforehand they recorded another video release, "", in which they covered songs by Pink Floyd and Syd Barrett live, and also played their first studio album in its entirety in a show which took place in the Theatro Municipal in São Paulo. Souza was replaced by Fred Barley – however, Barley left the band in 2011 in order to join O Terço, and was replaced by José Luiz Dinola (former A Chave do Sol member); Violeta de Outono's line-up remains unchanged ever since.
Their sixth full-length album, "Espectro", was released in 2012.
On September 19, 2016, the band announced that they began work on their seventh studio album, "Spaces", which was eventually released on October 14, 2016.
References.
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Eclipse (Violeta de Outono album)
Eclipse is a live album by Brazilian psychedelic rock band Violeta de Outono, released in 1995 by Argentine independent label Record Runner. It was recorded during the band's performance at the SESC Pompeia in São Paulo, in 1986.
References.
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Eclipse (Journey album)
Eclipse (stylized as ECL1P53) is the fourteenth studio album by American rock band Journey and the second with lead singer Arnel Pineda. Penned by Neal Schon and Jonathan Cain with contributions from Pineda, the album was released in the United States and Canada on May 24, 2011, on May 27, 2011, in Japan, in the United Kingdom on May 30, 2011, and internationally on June 3, 2011. It is the last album to feature bassist Ross Valory, who was dismissed from the group in 2020.
Production.
"Eclipse" was recorded in Berkeley, CA. As the album was near completion, producer Kevin Shirley ran out of time. In an effort for the band to release the album in time for the tour, Neal Schon and Jonathan Cain produced the remaining tracks in Nashville. The album was a departure, focusing on a harder rock sound rather than the formulaic pop hits and ballads. Schon, feeling the pop formula became repetitive, wanted to experiment on "Eclipse" and make it more guitar-oriented and less radio-friendly. Shirley had trepidation about the direction of the album, clashing with Schon creatively. Many of the tracks were re-recorded in Nashville under Schon and Cain's production. Cain supported "Eclipse", saying "we’d had this concept in mind from the get go. We’ve got the ballads we can play all day long. If people want to hear ballads, they can certainly find them on other records."
Despite this intentional change in sound, it does feature at least one ballad, "Anything Is Possible", which hit number twenty-one on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart.
Release and reception.
"Eclipse" was released on May 24, 2011. In North America it was exclusively sold at Wal-Mart. "Eclipse" sold 21,400 copies in the United States in its debut week, reaching No. 13 on the US "Billboard" 200 chart. "Eclipse" marks Journey's second straight Top 20 album with current lead singer, Arnel Pineda. Internationally, "Eclipse" entered the Top 40 album charts in five different countries.
Despite high chart positions it descended from the charts within weeks. "Eclipse" was unable to match the success of "Revelation", barely selling 100,000 copies—an 1/8th of the previous album's sales.
"Eclipse" received mixed to negative reviews. "Rolling Stone" reviewer Caryn Ganz rated the album at two stars, saying "Journey's second disc with Filipino YouTube discovery Arnel Pineda on vocals is both grand and distractingly proggy." Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic also rated "Eclipse" at two stars, praising Journey's ability to fuse their prog-rock abilities with their arena rock sound; however, he goes on to say the album "pulsates with a certain insular chill that isn't especially welcoming; this is music made for the musicians, and if anybody else happens to like it, that's just a minor bonus."
Aftermath.
Though Journey enjoyed the process of recording "Eclipse", they considered its lack of success a career setback. They became skeptical of recording a new album, focusing primarily on live performances. Jonathan Cain said "we have a great catalogue here, right now to play. We got a lot of songs that we're not even playing. So, we're like, 'What's the point of makin' a new CD right now?'". Cain did not rule out the possibility of another album, which he says "I think we need to stay sort of closer to who we are, to who we've been -- great songs, great melodies, harmonies -- and not worry about if it's heavy or not. Our fans are getting older, man; they're not headbangers anymore. So if we do anything, I think we need to go back to the center."
References.
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History of Eclipse Aviation
American aircraft manufacturer history
The history of Eclipse Aviation is the story of the largest financial failure in the history of general aviation, one that experts have predicted will leave a lasting impact on the aerospace industry.
It runs from the company's startup in 1998 to the design and testing of the Eclipse 500 very light jet (VLJ) through 2006, to the production of 260 examples from 2006–2008, development of the Eclipse 400 single-engined jet from 2007–2008, the most deliveries of a VLJ in a single year to date with over 150 Eclipse 500s sold in the first three quarters of 2008, and ultimately to the company's downfall in the latter part of 2008 and dissolution in bankruptcy in 2009, referred to by many in the media at the time as the "billion-dollar debacle". The story also involves shorter-lived ventures following its 2009 bankruptcy, as well as the introduction of the Eclipse 550 VLJ in 2014.
Significance.
Aviation analysts are still tallying the impact that the company will have on 21st Century aviation.
J. Mac McClellan, Editor in Chief of Flying Magazine, in February 2009 summarized the significance of Eclipse:
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Richard Aboulafia, Vice President, Analysis, Teal Group in his consultant's report on Eclipse of October 2008 said:
<templatestyles src="Template:Blockquote/styles.css" />The Eclipse program was designed from the outset to be revolutionary and unique. In Teal Group's estimation, the people behind Eclipse have attained this objective. This program is the single worst aviation program Teal Group has ever covered.
It isn't the aircraft itself. Rather, it was a business plan that makes no sense, except to attract investors who don't know much about the aviation business. The plan called for 1,000 deliveries per year. As a reference point, in 2007 the world's manufacturers delivered a total of about 4,000 turbine-powered aircraft of all types and models. This one company, an unknown start-up, proposed to grow that global figure by 25%, admitting that it couldn't survive if it merely built 450 planes per year (100 aircraft more than any other turbine-powered aircraft model).
The formula was remarkably simple. A completely unrealistic production rate was predicated on an unrealistically low price (less than $800,000, at first). That impossibly low price was predicated on the unrealistically high production numbers. This formula (promoted as a revolutionary paradigm) worked, as long as people gave Eclipse money. As soon as they stopped (which has been happening for the past 12 months), reality caught up to Eclipse ...
AVweb Editor-in-Chief Russ Niles stated:
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The failure of Eclipse has even changed the language of aviation. By late 2009 the term "Very Light Jet" had become so tainted by Eclipse's "billion-dollar debacle" who trumpeted that term widely, that most manufacturers were avoiding use of the term to describe their products. The NBAA's Brian Foley explained "The term VLJ was at times tainted by ... unrealistic expectations and even failure. The industry would do well to drop hyped words in order to improve credibility with users." Cessna never used the term to describe its Mustang, Embraer labels its Phenom 100 an "entry-level jet" and Stratos has described its jet as "not a VLJ ... but a very light personal jet." In December 2010 AVweb's Paul Bertorelli added, "personal jet is the description du jour. You don't hear the term VLJ—very light jet--much anymore and some people in the industry tell me they think it's because that term was too tightly coupled to Eclipse, a failure that the remaining players want to, understandably, distance themselves from."
Timeline.
Eclipse Aviation Corporation was founded in 1998 by Microsoft employee #18 Vern Raburn. Due to Raburn's relationship with Microsoft, Bill Gates became a major stakeholder early in the Eclipse project. Raburn and his team initially based the company in Scottsdale, Arizona, formed a board of directors in 1999 and started design work on the first aircraft. Due to investments made by the State of New Mexico and incentives and concessions from the City of Albuquerque, the company decided to set up its production facilities in Albuquerque, and also moved its headquarters there in 2000.
In addition to its factory in Albuquerque, Eclipse established three service centers, at Albuquerque, at Gainesville Regional Airport in Florida, and at Albany International Airport in New York.
Preliminary design work on the Eclipse 500 was completed in 2000. The design was finalized in 2001 and construction of the first prototype commenced that year. The prototype first flew on 26 August 2002, powered by two Williams International EJ22 turbofans.
The Eclipse 500 had been designed around the Williams International EJ22 turbofan engine and the aircraft's selling price and operating economics hinged on the use of that engine. The prototype Eclipse 500 only flew once with the EJ22s installed. Eclipse CEO Vern Raburn said that the engines never delivered the rated thrust and that the problems were not just developmental in nature. Williams International responded by stating that the engines met all the contractual obligations and that Eclipse simply demanded more thrust than the engine was capable of providing.
As a replacement powerplant Eclipse selected the Pratt & Whitney Canada PW610F-A turbofan. This change required significant airframe redesign and introduced integration challenges. The prototype equipped with the PW610F engines first flew on 31 December 2004. The engine change caused a thirty-month delay in the Eclipse program and the forecast first customer deliveries.
In February 2006 the National Aeronautic Association named Eclipse Aviation as the winner of the prestigious Collier Trophy for 2005. Specifically the award was for:
<templatestyles src="Template:Blockquote/styles.css" />... applying innovations created in the technology industry to drive down cost, increase performance, improve safety, and spur a new type of air travel -- the air taxi.
... the selection committee's criteria included recognition of the rich heritage of the Collier Trophy, and 'the spirit of entrepreneurship, technical innovation, and the impact on American aviation,' exemplified by the Eclipse 500.
The award was controversial, as the NAA states that the prize is awarded "for the greatest achievement in aeronautics or astronautics in America, with respect to improving the performance, efficiency, and safety of air or space vehicles, the value of which has been thoroughly demonstrated by actual use during the preceding year." At the time of the award, prototype EA500s were flying but certification by the FAA was still 9 months away. The aircraft was not fully certified until 30 September 2006 and the first customer aircraft was not delivered until 2007. Critics indicated that the EA500 did not meet the stated criteria, although Eclipse Aircraft defended the award as justified. Richard Aboulafia termed it "a highly suspect award decision that managed to demean all the other worthy recipients and the Collier itself."
The Eclipse 500 was FAA certified on 30 September 2006 under the official designation "Eclipse Aviation EA500".
The first customer EA500 was delivered in early January 2007.
On 23 July 2007 at AirVenture in Oshkosh, Wisconsin Eclipse unveiled the already flying prototype of a second company design initially called the "Eclipse Concept Jet". The four-seat aircraft was powered by a single Pratt & Whitney Canada PW610F turbofan and was built in secrecy at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia by Swift Engineering and Basis.
The ECJ had first flown on 2 July 2007. At the time of its announcement the aircraft was expected to have a cruise speed of at with an IFR range of . The aircraft was intended to have a gross weight, empty weight, useful load and a fuel capacity of .
At the time of its announcement the company said that it did not intend to produce the aircraft. Eclipse CEO Vern Raburn said "The Eclipse Jet will allow us to obtain real, quantifiable data that looks at this developing category. While today we have no production plans for the ECJ, we are constantly evaluating markets for future Eclipse products ... we are anxious to reveal the potential of this emerging category, and our opportunity to add real value to it."
In October 2007 the company furloughed some 100-150 contract workers and employees, about 10% of its workforce.
In November 2007 Eclipse subcontractor Hampson Aerospace, which built the tail assembly, including the fin, horizontal stabilizers, rudder and elevators for the Eclipse 500, filed suit against Eclipse alleging that Eclipse had not paid for parts which had been delivered to Eclipse.
At the time Eclipse CEO Vern Raburn said of the issue:
<templatestyles src="Template:Blockquote/styles.css" />You may have heard that a supplier of ours, Hampson Aerospace, has filed a lawsuit against Eclipse Aviation. Hampson manufactures the Eclipse 500's tail section, including the vertical and horizontal, rudder and elevators. I want to assure you that aircraft production has not stopped, and Hampson remains a supplier. Our number one priority continues to be delivering outstanding aircraft to you. While I cannot go into too much detail on pending litigation, I will say that as in most production situations, occasionally we get into a dispute with a vendor. However, we almost always work the differences out and very few disagreements end up in the public domain as legal action. Prior to Hampson's filing, we sent them a notice outlining a number of recurring quality issues. These concerns have led to a discrepancy on what parts should be paid for, and which should not. Contrary to wishful speculation by our competitors and critics, this issue has absolutely nothing to do with the financial health of Eclipse Aviation. In short, it is about our refusal to accept and pay for sub-standard material. I am very hopeful that we will be able to work through our differences, and that our partnership with Hampson will continue.
The suit was resolved in February 2008 in a confidential agreement.
During 2007 Eclipse produced 104 aircraft and proclaimed a record for building its "first 100 airplanes faster than any GA jet aircraft manufacturer in history." CEO Vern Raburn described the accomplishment as "audacious" and added "We're transforming how jets are built, and how people travel. It's an audacious goal, and one that stretches us every day to go beyond what seems possible. Day-to-day setbacks are inevitable, but the reality is that we have created a new aircraft category and are bringing a new breed of jet to market at a rate never before seen in general aviation."
In February 2008 the company purchased a 2005 model Cirrus SR20 light single-engined piston aircraft to be used as a company employee flying club aircraft.
In April 2008 Eclipse obtained a court order in California ordering Google to provide the IP addresses of 29 anonymous contributors to the Eclipse Aviation Critic NG blog, which is hosted on Google's Blogger service. The blog, run by Shane Price of Dublin, Ireland is a forum for those who are critical of the company and its treatment of employees, customers and suppliers. Eclipse CEO Vern Raburn said that the pursuit of blog contributors was not to suppress criticism, stating: "We're not trying to suppress dissension or criticism. We're just trying to find out where it's coming from." Raburn stated that since Eclipse employees and suppliers are bound by non-disclosure agreements he wanted to ensure that these are not being broken.
Price indicated that some of the identities named in the court subpoena had not posted on the blog and that these names may have come from a previous blog that was critical of Eclipse and was no longer active. The subpoena was opposed by several people in court on the basis that, since they have no connection to the company, the disclosure of their identities would violate their First Amendment rights.
One contributor to the blog, Rich Lucibella, told CharterX Industry Headline News that he found Eclipse's actions "outrageous." Lucibella said: "What Eclipse is attempting to do is just wrong, they want to take advantage of people's rights; I can't stand by and let them do that ... Eclipse doesn't have the right to access other people's private information. For example, if three bloggers are or were employed by Eclipse but others aren't, then the rest of the people's privacy rights are violated under the First Amendment. Eclipse hasn't appeared to invoke the rule of reason."
Lucibella retained attorney Norman Malinski and filed a motion in the Superior Court of California to prevent Google from releasing contributors' private information.
Despite earlier claims that the company would not produce the aircraft, on 30 May 2008 Eclipse Aviation began taking orders for a production version of the Eclipse Concept Jet, now designated the Eclipse 400. The 400 was at that time priced at $1.35 million and deliveries were expected to begin by the fourth quarter of 2011.
Founding President and CEO Vern Raburn resigned as a condition of a financing package by European Technology and Investment Research Center (ETIRC) Aviation, the company that had invested more than US$100 million in Eclipse in 2008. Raburn announced his resignation in an unexpected public event at AirVenture on Monday 28 July 2008. In departing Raburn stated that he believed Eclipse fundamentally changed aviation but he did acknowledge that events did not occur as quickly or as smoothly as he had planned.
Raburn was replaced as CEO by Roel Pieper, the chairman of the board of directors and president of ETIRC. Raburn was initially offered an executive position at ETIRC; he turned it down, thus ending his relationship with Eclipse.
At the time of Raburn's departure, Pieper paid tribute to Raburn saying:
<templatestyles src="Template:Blockquote/styles.css" />He has built up the company. Now you have to move to a different stage in the business where it's about operations, it's about quality, it's about efficiency. The board, the investors, the note holders, everybody has agreed that this is the moment to do that.
Pieper also said of the company in July 2008:
<templatestyles src="Template:Blockquote/styles.css" />The entire layout of the factory was built to get to 2.0 [aircraft per day production] without problems. I think the whole goal of getting to 1.7, 1.8 is a reasonable goal. It doesn't say 2 and a half. I don't want to overstress it, but that will give us an opportunity to get to profitability in Q1, March of next year.
On August 3, 2008, after Vern Raburn's removal from the company, the new management at Eclipse dropped the non-disclosure legal actions against Google and the bloggers, under terms set by defending attorney Malinski. "If Eclipse ever goes after these 29 bloggers again, Eclipse could face financial penalties in advance of proceedings," Malinski said. He also stated: "Freedom of speech rights includes being able to keep your identity anonymous, to be able to express freedom of speech, to have the freedom to disagree with someone else's opinion without being harassed."
In response to frequent rumors in the summer of the 2008 that the company would close its Albuquerque plant and relocate the operation, Eclipse issued the following statement on 14 August 2008:
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On 19 August 2008 Albany International, an Eclipse supplier, announced that production of the Eclipse would soon be dropping significantly.
On Wednesday 20 August 2008 Hampson Aerospace closed its Grand Prairie production plant, leaving Eclipse without a supplier of tail sections. In late September Hampson revised its webpage to remove details of its relationship with Eclipse.
On 22 August 2008, Eclipse announced that it would be laying off 650 of its workforce of 1800 people (38% of its work force).
Company President and CEO, Roel Pieper, said: "Financial stability is critical for this company and unfortunately, a reduction in workforce was necessary to achieve it. I am confident this action will set the company on the path to profitability so that we can continue to lead the very light jet category."
Albuquerque Mayor Martin Chavez reacted to the layoff notice saying: "This is quite serious news from Eclipse that 600 jobs will be lost. The city of Albuquerque and the state of New Mexico intend to work together to try and place those impacted by those decisions. It is our hope that in the near future, Eclipse becomes a community leader once again in Albuquerque." Chavez expressed confidence in the new company management and that the company will be turned around by the end of 2008. Chavez stated: "In the end, if everything goes right, it will lead to even more jobs in Albuquerque. We'll see how it works out." The city previously provided a number of incentives to convince Eclipse to locate in Albuquerque, including $45 million in industrial revenue bonds issued in 2004 and $770,000 in property tax abatements. The city's Economic Development Department said that Eclipse, and not the city, was responsible for the industrial revenue bonds.
New Mexico had invested US$19 million in Eclipse as part of a package to get the company to locate in the state. Governor Bill Richardson indicated on 22 August 2008 that he didn't believe the situation was hopeless, stating: "I've been assured by the president of Eclipse that these jobs will eventually come back ... But I am concerned about the viability, in the future, of Eclipse ... I will try to help them seek additional funding and investors, but I like their long-term game plan and their short-term game plan."
In late August the company held a meeting for 90 of its suppliers. The meeting was intended to gather support for the company following the removal of Raburn and the layoff of the 650 employees. However by this time the majority of suppliers had already put the company on credit watch for non-payment of invoices and required cash-in-advance payments for all parts to be delivered. Ironically at his departure Raburn had laid the blame for much of the company's failures on its suppliers.
On 29 August 2008 Pratt & Whitney Canada repossessed 24 engines sold to Eclipse, valued at $5,165,744.
In August 2008, in a communication to position holders, the company indicated that development of the Eclipse 400 was on hold.
In August 2008 Eclipse was sued for failing to provide a refund on a cancelled order by its due date of 1 August 2008. Ice Blue Air, of London, had ordered an Eclipse 500 in 2006 and indicated that, due to the price increases, they were entitled to a refund as stipulated in the purchase agreement. The purchase agreement permitted cancellation and a full refund if the aircraft's price was raised. Eclipse disagreed and responded that no refunds would be possible until further financing was in place, anticipated at that time for the end of 2008. Eclipse was the subject of several similar delivery-related lawsuits and as many as 300 customer orders were cancelled and awaiting refunds.
On 25 September 2008 Robert Bigler of Cupertino, California filed suit against Eclipse for not returning his deposit of US$182,000. Eclipse filed a motion in response indicating that the "Plaintiff did not comply with the contract requirements for obtaining a refund, and therefore has not yet given the required 'effective notice' under the contract at issue. Plaintiff's claims therefore are premature."
In September and again in October 2008, Eclipse indicated that unless it received "funding in October or November," it would not have the ability to refund customer deposits.
On 19 September 2008, during the 2007–2008 financial crisis, Eclipse's largest customer, DayJet, representing 1430 orders for the Eclipse 500, ceased flying operations for financial reasons and indicated that a return to flying was "unlikely". The company's operations also suffered as a result of Eclipse Aviation's alleged failure to install missing equipment or functionality or repair agreed technical discrepancies in accordance with the terms of DayJet's aircraft purchase contract.
In October 2008, Airport Journals reported more detail on the DayJet order for 1400 aircraft:
<templatestyles src="Template:Blockquote/styles.css" />On May 2, 2007, for the first time, Traver-Gruen-Kennedy, vice president of strategic operations at DayJet, confirmed to this journalist that in 2002, under the name of Jetson Systems, not DayJet, 1,400 EA-500 orders were placed. During that time, Gruen-Kennedy said that although the colossal order was placed, the company would first operate 300 VLJs within a two-year period. But because the 1,400 orders existed, at least on paper, they were used during a 2005 New Mexico State Investment Council meeting, which prompted the state's private equity program to purchase more than $3 million of Eclipse Series F preferred stock. Since that funding, the state invested much more into Eclipse.
For years, aviation analysts have said they doubted there was any substance behind the 1,400 orders. To this day, Eclipse has refused to make its order book available, for verification of orders and cancellations. With the Eclipse 500's price now reaching $2.5 million, and with the 1,400 orders gone, aerospace analysts are skeptical about the company's likelihood of survival. Eclipse's marketing plan was based on mass production with a VLJ in the $1 million range.
Eclipse Aviation announced in October 2008 that it was acting as "the exclusive broker" and was advertising the entire DayJet fleet of 28 aircraft for sale.
Canadian light aircraft fractional aircraft company OurPlane bid on the entire DayJet fleet of aircraft, offering more than "$500,000 each but less than $1.5 million" each. OurPlane operates a fleet of Cirrus SR22 aircraft and one current Eclipse 500. OurPlane planned to offer its customers one-quarter shares in the Eclipse 500s for less than US$449,000. The sale was never completed and OurPlane went into Chapter 7 liquidation in October 2010 after selling all its customer's "fractional ownership" aircraft.
Eclipse Aviation announced on 23 September 2008 that it planned to establish a factory in Ulyanovsk, Russia to assemble the Eclipse 500. The Russian State Bank Vnesheconombank agreed to finance 100% of the project, providing US$205 million and would be a part-owner of the operation. The Russian State Bank supervisory board is chaired by Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. The Russian-based operation was intended to be jointly operated by the European Technology and Investment Research Center (ETIRC) Aviation, the Russian Federation, the Commonwealth of Independent States and the Republic of Turkey.
On 8 October 2008, the Belgian company Royal Properties filed a lawsuit, alleging that Eclipse Aviation failed to return "the deposit it paid despite the occurrence of a Refund Event and Royal Properties' effective notice of demand for a refund."
In October 2008 when asked "if the Eclipse 400 project was a go or not, Eclipse said it has not begun the certification process. The company also said it has not spent any of the deposit money for the four-place, single-engine VLJ."
Eclipse halted production of the EA500 in October 2008 at serial number 267, although serial number 266 was completed much earlier in the year. The company indicated that it lacked the funds to continue production or to refund customer deposits for the EA500 and 400 that were owed and were the subject of outstanding lawsuits.
In October 2008 a number of industry analyses and media reports were released all predicting that Eclipse would soon enter bankruptcy, production of the Eclipse 500 would end and development of the Eclipse 400 would cease.
In an analysis of the company and its situation in October 2008 Richard Aboulafia, Vice President, Analysis, Teal Group in his consultant's report on Eclipse said: "With numerous lawsuits from suppliers and customers, Eclipse faces the prospect of involuntary or voluntary bankruptcy ... we doubt that Eclipse can survive as an ongoing business. There is a chance that additional cash injections would keep it alive for another year or two. But for now, our forecast calls for production to end in 2009."
On 28 October 2008 Forecast International released a report on Eclipse projecting "that production of the Eclipse 500 will soon end". They also stated: "Eclipse continues to produce aircraft at a low rate as it seeks to preserve cash. We have forecast production of 162 Eclipse 500s during 2008. We believe that the company will be able to push production out into early 2009 but will be forced to cease production within the first quarter of 2009 ... even this forecast may prove too optimistic ... To restructure its operations and reach profitability, Eclipse Aviation has said publicly that it needs $200–$300 million in new equity investment. With credit markets in the midst of a major crisis, Eclipse Aviation is seeking funding at a time when bankers and investors are reluctant to pour hundreds of millions of dollars into a company facing an uncertain future." Forecast International predicted that Eclipse would not be successful in attracting the new investment it needed to continue production past March 2009.
Responding to the Teal Group and Forecast International outlooks for Eclipse, Serge Le Guellec, president and CEO of Mecaer America, a Montreal-based subcontractor who built the landing gear for the Eclipse 500, on 4 November 2008 said: "We are following the situation very closely. We understand that for Eclipse there are difficulties securing financing. I think we must be prudent, but I also think it is a bit premature to predict its (Eclipse's) demise by the end of the first quarter of 2009."
Composite manufacturer and Eclipse subcontractor Albany International indicated in its fourth quarter report, issued on 4 November 2008, that it expected Eclipse's prospects to improve in 2009: "... in August [2008] we announced that at Eclipse Aviation, AEC's largest customer, was substantially cutting back production. For AEC, this meant a complete stoppage of production of parts for Eclipse. We also stated in August that we expected Eclipse to ramp back up in 2009. Indications from Eclipse are that they are on track for a 2009 recovery, which would mean that AEC Production of Eclipse components would return to at least Q2 2008 rates by Q3 of 2009."
In early November 2008 a group of Eclipse 500 deposit