Jean Journet was a nineteenth-century secular evangelist who traveled throughout France and Belgium preaching on behalf of the Fourier movement, a form of utopian socialism that aspired to the creation of social harmony. This portrait of Journet is surrounded by verses intended to be sung by the reader as a moralizing call to change. Courbet's use of this format of text combined with image-more commonly found in crude, popular woodcuts-signals his solidarity with the movement and its popular roots.