1 / 3
Premium MILLON
6
-
Camille COROT (Paris 1796 - 1875)
Old Italian Standing in Pr…
See original version (French)
6
-
Camille COROT (Paris 1796 - 1875)
Old Italian Standing in Pr…
See original version (French)
Estimate €30,000 - €40,000
Voluntary lot
Description
Camille COROT (Paris 1796 - 1875)
Old Italian Standing in Profile, Rome, 1826
Oil on paper
23.5 x 17 cm
Dated lower right February 1826
Stamp of the Posthumous Sale lower left
Provenance :
Posthumous sale Camille Corot, n° 269
Acquired by Mr Chamouillet
Ply Collection, 1892
Durand-Ruel, 1895
L. H. Higgintson Collection, 1906
Parke Bernet sale, NY, 21 October 1956
Dieterle Collection
Collection Martin Dieterle then by inheritance
Bibliography :
Alfred Robaut, L'œuvre de Corot , catalogue raisonné et illustré, tome deuxième, Paris , 1905; n°93, described page 36 and reproduced page 37
A major figure in nineteenth-century landscape painting, Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot occupies a singular place in the history of art, at the crossroads of the neoclassical tradition and the sensitive research that already heralded pictorial modernity. Born in Paris in 1796 into a prosperous bourgeois family, he was initially destined to work in the family business before managing, not without some resistance from his father, to devote himself fully to painting. Trained successively by Achille Etna Michallon and Jean-Victor Bertin, both heirs to the teachings of Pierre-Henri de Valenciennes, Corot assimilated the principles of neoclassical landscape painting: careful study of the motif, rigorous composition and poetic idealisation of nature. However, from his earliest years, the artist distinguished himself by a more immediate and sensitive approach to reality, paying particular attention to atmospheric variations and the luminous truth of the landscape observed.
In this respect, his first trip to Italy, between 1825 and 1828, was a founding stage in the development of his pictorial language. In keeping with the academic tradition, the young painter travelled to Italy to come face to face with the Italian masters and the Mediterranean light. After travelling through Switzerland, Corot settled in Rome in December 1825 and undertook a series of painting campaigns in the outskirts of the city, in the Sabine mountains, the Albanian lakes and Tivoli. During this stay, he produced a considerable body of painted and drawn studies on the motif, long considered to be mere preparatory exercises, but now recognised as one of the most innovative aspects of his work. With their spontaneity of execution, their economy of means and their ability to capture the fleeting moment, these works already heralded some of the research that would be carried out by the Impressionist painters several decades later.
Vieil Italien debout de profil, Rome, 1826 (Old Italian standing in profile, Rome, 1826) is a perfect example of this careful observation of reality. Produced during the artist's first visit to Rome, it bears witness to Corot's interest in popular Italian figures, encountered in the streets of Rome or in the surrounding countryside. Far from any heroic idealisation, the model is depicted with great restraint, with her silhouette gently emerging from a dark, indeterminate background. Subtle plays of light highlight the figure and her clothes, while the shadows of her legs cover the ground, detaching the model from the background. With his supple brushstrokes and deliberately blurred contours, Corot was less concerned with descriptive precision than with the general atmosphere of the scene. The limited palette, dominated by muted brown tones, contributes to this impression of silence and meditation. The artist thus moved away from a picturesque Italian image and offered a deeply human and sensitive vision.
Admired as much by the artists of the Barbizon School as by the future Impressionists, he remains an essential intermediary between two artistic conceptions. Old Italian Standing in Profile, Rome, 1826 is thus not only a precious record of his first Italian sojourn, but also the early expression of a new sensibility, imbued with a discreet poetry and a certain veracity of perception.
See original version (French)
Auto-translation. Refer to original language for legal validity.
Pictures credits: Contact the Auction House
You may also like