It treats an ordinary, provincial funeral with frank realism, and on the grand scale traditionally reserved for the heroic or religious scenes of history painting.

Its exhibition at the 1850–51 Paris Salon created an "explosive reaction" and brought Courbet instant fame.

[2] The other is woodcuts from the 1830s and 40s such as Souvenir Mortuaire (1830), featuring an elevated cross and a grave digger the left, and Degrés des Âges (1830), depicting individuals in a semicircle around a scene of death.

[4] Courbet made a sketch prior to the final work, and the people of Ornans posed as models.

Others push back on this notion, claiming that the proximity of the figures along with their similar colors of costume unify them as though they are physically merged, not allowing the viewer's attention to rest on one person at a time.

By depicting the townspeople of Ornans at a grand scale that was previously reserved for history paintings, Courbet declared the importance of ordinary, rural people to the Parisian public at the Salon.

The provocative presentation of an ordinary subject in a large format has led many commentators to see the work as a political statement.

The horizontal format, with all figures represented on roughly the same level, delivered a seemingly egalitarian and socialist message.

[2] Clark relates this message to the personal position of Courbet, whose family was not fully bourgeois, but was wealthy enough to own two homes.

It has pleased the painter to show us the domestic life of a small town ... As to the alleged ugliness of the townspeople, there is nothing exaggerated about it.

[11] The prominent position of the crucifix above all other figures is thought to symbolize the importance of Catholicism and traditional social values among the rural French population.

He saw spirituality as being important in the death of a human, and he took the impious atmosphere of the scene to be a commentary on France losing its faith.

Others, such as Hélène Toussaint, would later argue that the crucifix itself is a representation of hope that, after the 1848 Revolution, Christianity could be the basis for a rebuilding of French unity.

McCarthy claims that the figures stood as a representation of "old-fashioned intransigence, a lack of contact with the latest revolutionary ideals, and a sense of frustration mingled with a certain bitterness."

Its large scale had previously been reserved for history paintings, which academic doctrine held to be the highest genre.

According to Mack, Courbet's works, and Burial in particular, allowed artists to explore new ways of painting and new subject matter.