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| 1825 Self Portrait Oil on canvas 32.5 x 24.5 cm Musée du Louvre, Paris |
Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot (1796 – 1875) was a French landscape and portrait painter, as well as printmaker. He is regarded as a pivotal figure in landscape painting; his vast output simultaneously referencing the Neo-Classical tradition and anticipating the ‘plein-air’ innovations of Impressionism.
Better known today as Camille Corot, he was born
in Paris in 1796, the son of a cloth merchant and a milliner. After an education
at the Collège de Rouen and two abortive apprenticeships with drapers, he was
given the financial freedom at the age of 26 to devote himself to painting.
In 1825 to 1828 Corot made the trip to
Italy considered so essential to the formation of a landscape artist, spending
time in Rome and the Campagna, before travelling to Naples. In 1827 he sent his
first paintings to the Paris Salon: View at Narni and The Roman Campagna.
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| 1826-27 View at Narni Oil on canvas National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa |
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| 1826-27c The Roman Campagna (La Cervara) Oil on canvas Kunsthaus Zürich, Switzerland |
He returned to Italy in 1834 and 1843. He
also travelled extensively in France, to Normandy, Provence, and the Morvan
region of Burgundy, to which he returned for many years, and to North-East
France in 1871 during the Commune. In 1854 he travelled to Holland and Belgium;
he regularly visited Switzerland, and was in London in 1862.
During these trips Corot painted in the
open air and filled numerous notebooks with drawings. His early oil sketches
were clearly defined and fresh, using bright colours in fluid strokes. During
the winter months he worked in the studio on ambitious mythological and
religious landscapes destined for the salon. Hagar in the Wilderness, exhibited
at the salon of 1835, is characteristic of his early work, and like his
open-air studies, features the clear-cut forms and colours of academic
painting.
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| 1835 Hagar in the Wilderness Oil on canvas 180.3 x 270.5 cm Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City |
His reputation was established by the
1850s, which was also the period when his style became softer and his colours
more restricted. Topographical detail was suppressed in favour of mood and
atmosphere, above all in his ‘souvenirs’ which were based on memories of real
landscapes.
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| 1860-61 Souvenir de Pierrefonds Oil on canvas 46 x 38 cm The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow |
The popularity of these combined with
Corot’s encouragement of younger artists to copy his pictures (which he then signed),
either as a learning exercise or for producing works for sale, resulted in
numerous forgeries and imitations, as well as difficulties of attribution.
At the Exposition Universelle of 1855 Corot
showed six paintings and won a gold medal. His influence on later C19th
landscape painting, including the Impressionists, was immense. For a long time
however, especially among collectors, the popularity of his late work
overshadowed appreciation of his early studies. Camille Corot died in 1875.
Biographical notes adapted from The
National Gallery, London, and Wikipedia.
This is part 1 of a 16-part series on the works of Camille Corot:
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| 1822 Bois Guillaumi, near Rouen A Gate Flanked by Two Posts Oil on canvas Galleria Internazionale d'Arte Moderna, Ca'Pesaro, Italy |
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| 1822 Dieppe, End of a Pier and the Sea Oil on canvas Musée Royaux des Beaux-Arts, Brussels, Belgium |
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| 1822 Fontainebleau, Storm over the Plains Oil on paper Musée Cantonal des Beaux-Arts, Lausanne, Switzerland |
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| 1822 Landscape inspired by the View of Frascati Oil on canvas 127 x 171 cm Musée du Louvre, Paris |
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| 1822 Moret sur Loing, the Bridge and the Church Oil on canvas 30.5 x 39.5 cm Private Collection |
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| 1822-24c Fontainebleau, the Road to Chailly Oil on board 26 x 32.5 cm Private Collection |
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| 1823-24c A Farm Building at Bois-Guillaume near Rouen Oil on panel 25.3 x 33 cm Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena, CA |
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| 1823-24c Fontainebleau Oil on board Private Collection |
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| 1823-24c Fontainebleau, en Forêt Oil on paper mounted on canvas 21 x 29.2 cm Bristol Museum and Art Gallery, UK |
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| 1823c Banks of the Stream near the Corot Property, Ville d'Avray Oil on paper mounted on wood 21.9 x 23.5 cm Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City |
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| 1823c Le Petit Chaville, near Ville-d'Avray Oil on canvas The Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology, Oxford, UK |
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| 1823c Shipyard in Honfleur Oil on paper 43.8 x 29.5 cm Private Collection |
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| 1824-25c Honfleur, The Old Wharf Oil on canvas Rhode Island School of Design Museum of Art, Providence RI |
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| 1824-26 Le Vieux Pont St Michel Oil on canvas 25 x 30 cm Oise Museum, Beauvais, France |
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| 1825 Between Lake Geneva and the Alps Oil on canvas Private Collection |
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| 1825 Italian Peasant Boy Oil on canvas National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC |
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| 1825 Landscape Oil on canvas 41 x 32.7 cm Philadelphia Museum of Art, PA |
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| 1825 The Colosseum, seen through the Arcades of the Basilica of Constantine Oil on paper 23 x 35 cm Musée du Louvre, Paris |
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| 1825-27c The Tiber River Hemmed in by the Collines Oil on canvas Private Collection |
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| 1825-28 Civita Castellana, Rocks with Trees Oil on paper mounted on board Private Collection |
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| 1825-28 Italian Sitting, Leaning on her Knee Oil on canvas 27 x 22 cm Louvre, Paris |
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| 1825-28c Italian Landscape Oil on paper mounted on canvas 12.7 x 27 cm Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City |
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| 1825-30c The Inn at Montigny les Cormeilles Oil Davis Museum and Cultural Center, Wellesley, MA |
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| 1825c Ville-d'Avray: Entrance to the Wood Oil on canvas 46 x 35 cm Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh, UK |
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| 1826 Cascade of Terni Oil on canvas 36 x 32 cm Private Collection |
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| 1826 Civita Castellana and Mount Soracte Oil on paper 36 x 27 cm Musee d'Art et d'Histoire, Geneva |
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| 1826 La Monta Soracte Oil on paper mounted on canvas Private Collection |
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| 1826 Old Man Seated on Corot's Trunk Oil on canvas |
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| 1826 On the Banks of the Tiber Oil on canvas Private Collection |
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| 1826 Papigno, Buildings Overlooking the Valley Oil on canvas Private Collection |
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| 1826 Rocks at Civita Castellana Oil on canvas 32 x 44 cm Private Collection |
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| 1826 Rome, View from the Farnese Gardens, Noon Oil on paper mounted on canvas 30 x 49 cm Musée du Louvre, Paris |
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| 1826 Temple of Minerva Medica Oil on canvas 21 x 27 cm Musee des Beaux-Arts, Angers, France |
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| 1826 The Bridge at Narni Oil on paper mounted on canvas 34 x 48 cm Musée du Louvre, Paris |
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| 1826 The Forum seen from the Farnese Gardens, Rome Oil on canvas 28 x 50 cm Musée du Louvre, Paris |
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| 1826 The Lake of Piediluco, Umbria Oil on canvas 22 x 41 cm The Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology, Oxford, UK |
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| 1826 View from the Farnese Gardens, Rome Oil on canvas 25.1 x 40.6 cm Philips Collection, Washington DC |
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| 1826 View of Rome from Monte Pincio Oil on paper mounted on canvas 24.4 x 42.2 cm Minneapolis Institute of Arts. Minnesota |
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| 1826 View of the Convent of Sant'Onofrio on the Janiculum, Rome Oil on paper marouflé to canvas 22 x 33 cm The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, UK |
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| 1826 Waterfall at Terni Oil on paper mounted on wood 26.7 x 30.8 cm Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City |
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| 1826-18 Ponte Nomentano Oil on canvas Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam |
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