The Franco-German War broke out in 1870, the Second Empire collapsed, and the Third Republic was proclaimed. On March 18, 1871, the republican Paris Commune was established to fight the Germans in France as well as to fight the Army of Versailles, which had remained loyal to Napoleon III and had concluded an armistice with the Germans that the members of the Commune judged to be dishonourable. Courbet, who had been recently elected president of the artists’ federation and was charged with reopening the museums and organizing the annual Salon, took part in the revolutionary activities of the Commune. Instead of opening the museums, he decided to protect the major public monuments, especially the Sèvres porcelain factory and the palace at Fontainebleau, for Paris had been under constant bombardment by the Germans. Alarmed by the excesses of the Commune, he resigned May 2.
