COVE

"The Desperate Man" is a painting by Gustave Courbet. A self-portrait, it depicts the painter wrought with worry, his hands tearing at his hair. Courbet here appears as the essence of the Romantic artist -- the tourtured artist and genius, who is struggling for recognition in his work, politics, and money to earn a living. Courbet was beginning to shed the old tropes of those who came before him in favor of the new, Romantic ideals of painting and art, and this struggle of self-expression is captured within the piece. "The Desperate Man" acts as more than a self-portrait -- it is the struggle of the Romantic age, and the difficulty in revolution, change, and progression. 

Courbet famously would never paint an angel or a creature of mythology because he had "never seen one." His art style was to paint the world in all it's actuality, including his own desperation in art and finances, as seen in the "Desperate Man." Courbet himself said that, “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.” The realism found within this painting, and in his life, is what marked Courbet as one of the legendary painters of the day. 

Citation: 

Herding, Klaus (January 1998). Courbet, Gustave. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press.