The first owner of the painting L'Origine du Monde (The Origin of the World), was the Turkish-Egyptian diplomat Khalil-Bey (1831-1879). He himself probably commissioned it, in 1866, from the French painter Gustave Courbet. Khalil-Bey was a flamboyant figure in Paris Society in the 1860s. He put together an ephemeral but dazzling collection devoted to the celebration of the female body. Eventually he was ruined by his gambling debts. (Google the painting.)
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The first owner of the painting L'Origine du Monde (The Origin of the World), was the Turkish-Egyptian diplomat Khalil-Bey (1831-1879). He himself probably commissioned it, in 1866, from the French painter Gustave Courbet. Khalil-Bey was a flamboyant figure in Paris Society in the 1860s. He put together an ephemeral but dazzling collection devoted to the celebration of the female body. Eventually he was ruined by his gambling debts. (Google the painting.)