The Wrestlers

'The Wrestlers' is a monumental 1853 genre painting by the French artist Gustave Courbet, currently displayed in the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest. The piece, painted in oil on a grand canvas, depicts two men locked in a competitive display of 'French wrestling', a scene inspired by Greco-Roman wrestling, set in the former hippodrome on the Champs-Élysées in Paris. Highlighting Courbet's commitment to Realism, the painting's meticulous detail captures the raw intensity of the match. It served as a key influence for Alexandre Falguière's 1875 work, also The Wrestlers.