Over the years, Gustave Courbet developed a keen sense for the value of his own art. This enabled him to successfully manage his own commercial promotion, negotiate on equal terms with his patron, Alfred Bruyat, as well as Émile de Nieuwerkerke — Napoleon III's superintendent of fine arts — and open his own salon opposite the buildings of the Universal Exhibition. He even publicly refused the Legion of Honour. By nature, Courbet was overly self-satisfied and caricaturists relished immortalising this side of him.