in 1846–1847 coubet travelled to the netherlands and belgium where he studied the paintings of rembrandt, franz hals and jan steen who all painted in the 1600s. the paintings by these artists often showed realistic scenes and portraits of everyday life. they showed ordinary people at the table together, dancing, writing, cooking, working at trades and in businesses and in the fields. there were many pictures of soldiers. courbet decided that he wanted to paint scenes of ordinary life the way that these artists did. he did not want to paint scenes from literature, history or mythology like most other artists in france at that time.83