As one of the most controversial paintings in the history of art, Courbet' s The Origin of the World was hidden from private collectors in various ways from the very beginning of its creation. The last private owner of the painting was the French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan, who not only collected the painting anonymously, but also refused to disclose it to the public during the period of his collection. As a result, the painting was lost to art historical research, with its traces only retrievable through retrospective means. Around the 1980s, the study of The Origin of the World continued to advance, during which news of Lacan' s collection gradually spread, and it was these rumors that proved Lacan' s collecting behavior. that provided a brand-new stance and perspective for the study of The Origin of the World———the psychoanalytic approach. After Lacan' s death, the painting was publicly exhibited in the Musée d' Orsay, and since then art historians have studied it more comprehensively, not only verifying the history of the painting' s circulation in traditional research methods, but also exploring Courbet' s creative significance from a psychoanalytic, feminist perspective. It can be said that the act of covering up the painting and the act of tracing back the history of it together constitutes The Origin of the World’s viewing history. Starting from the existing psychoanalytic studies, this article attempts to focus on this viewing history, analyze the special role of the “veil” used to cover the painting, and use this history as a basis to return to Courbet' s creative environment, creative intention, and even his proposed realism, to rethink Courbet' s uniqueness and the originality of The Origin of the World.
