Courbet wanted to depict truth rather than prettiness in his artworks. The document asks the reader to compare one of Courbet's realist paintings to a work in the academic style, such as one by Ingres, to see how Courbet's approach to realism revolutionized the history of art by valuing truth over prettiness. It then asks how paintings by Impressionists like Monet or Renoir further contributed to this revolution and how they compare to Courbet's works in their depictions of reality.