-Courbet was inspired by the events of 1848 to turn his attention to poor and ordinary people
-Courbet proclaimed his new political commitment (to the Revolution) in three large paintings submitted to the Salon of 1850 (this is one)
-inspired by the funeral of Courbet’s maternal grandfather, Jean-Antoine Oudot
-conservative critics hated the work for its focus on common people and for its disrespect for compositional standards: instead of arranging figures in a pyramid that would indicate a hierarchy of importance, Courbet lined them up in rows across the picture plane, an arrangement he considered more democratic showing equality; the piece is realistic because it shows the grim life of the time, with riots and poor conditions in Paris due to the Industrial Revulation, and because the composition is not complete (with some individuals being cut-off at the edge of the canvas)
-his political convictions are especially evident in the individual attention and sympathetic treatment he accords the ordinary citizens of Ornanas
-the painting may record the fate of the Revolution of 1848 – the gesture of futility by the two men at the right of the grave suggests that they are burying not simply one of the colleagues but their political hopes as well