In 1854, Gustave Courbet wrote to his friend and patron, Alfred Bruyas, asking him to send a photograph of a nude woman that the two had previously discussed, because he wanted to include her in the composition of his major canvas, “The Painter’s Studio.” A decade later, when he painted “L’Origine du Monde” (1866), which shows a cropped (and highly detailed) view of a woman’s nude torso and nether regions, Courbet may have again worked from a photograph, one from a pornographic series by Auguste Belloc.