In his ability to offend society as he did with his painting the stonebreakers, courbet can be compared to

Caravaggio.

Explanation:

Caravaggio was famous painter of 17th century and was a controversial painter for his whole life because of his realistic painting theme. He used to paint such themes which used to offend general public. Courbet was, although, a painter of 19th century and was highly influenced by the idea of realism and Caravaggio's work and thus his themes were more realistic. Both artists had similarity of making realistic or you can say real life portrayals which offended people.

true

that is the way that they talked back then

=)