Galerie Dreyfus
16
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JEAN – BAPTISTE CAMILLE COROT (PARIS, 1796 – PARIS, 1875)
Th…
See original version (French)
16
-
JEAN – BAPTISTE CAMILLE COROT (PARIS, 1796 – PARIS, 1875)
Th…
See original version (French)
Estimate €60,000 - €75,000
Voluntary lot
Description
JEAN – BAPTISTE CAMILLE COROT
(PARIS, 1796 – PARIS, 1875)
The Road
Circa 1830
Oil on canvas
20 x 38 cm.
Signed lower left ‘Corot
’
Provenance
Maurice Masson Collection, Drouot auction, 22 June 1911, lot no. 8 (4,000 francs);
Georges Bernheim Gallery;
Alfred Baillehache Collection, Drouot auction, 23 May 1922, lot no. 14 (8,500 francs).
Publication
Catalogue of the Maurice Masson Collection, Paris, 1911.
Cutting across the fields, this road leads us, round a bend, towards a
village that we can still make out in the distance, a lighter patch at the foot of a dark-green hill.
Seated by the side of the path, enjoying a well-deserved rest, a woman sits set back from the path,
her legs stretched out, her back to the road and the fields. The sole human presence providing a
sense of scale to the landscape, this peasant woman with her simple silhouette stands out as a dark mass
against the bright, light palette of the landscape. The light tones of the tall, soft-green grass in the
fields and the yellow-ochre path echo the washed-out blue-grey of the sky, beyond the horizon
defined by the dark line of the hill, which is extended to the right by a row of trees. As
is his custom, Corot subtly constructs his landscape, transforming an unremarkable spot into a
skilfully balanced composition. With great economy of means, he guides our
gaze along this road, of which only the left-hand edge is emphasised by a dark line that affirms
its presence. By choosing the viewpoint, distributing the masses and organising the contrasts
according to a refined palette, the painter succeeds in conveying the intensity of a landscape and evoking
an emotion. Here, the heat of a midsummer’s day seems to overwhelm this woman, caught between
a snapshot of everyday life and a moment of eternity.
Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot (1796–1875) was a major 19th-century landscape painter
whose long life has left us with numerous works. Born into a wealthy bourgeois family, he was
initially destined for a career in commerce, but at the age of 26 he joined the studio of the painter Michallon (1796–
1822), who taught him the principles of neoclassical landscape painting and encouraged him to set out into the open
open air. From his numerous trips to Italy, he brought back views of Florence, Rome and Tivoli, then he
travelled the length and breadth of France in search of varied landscapes, whilst also taking an interest in architecture, as
evidenced in his famous *Chartres Cathedral*, now housed in the Louvre. An amateur artist, he had no intention
of exhibiting until the 1835 Salon, where he was immediately well received. He both captivated and
baffled his contemporaries with his classical themes rendered in a realistic style, using a
light palette and bold brushstrokes. From 1850 onwards, he moved away from the precision of the ‘motif’ to
reshape his landscapes according to his imagination, turning towards a style of painting based on ‘memories’
of the many places he had visited. His brushwork became lighter, less concerned with rendering
reality. Wealthy and honoured, he retired in 1874 to Coubron, where he continued to paint
numerous views of the surrounding forests, as seen here – a moving testament to his creativity, which remained
as vibrant as ever.
See original version (French)
Auto-translation. Refer to original language for legal validity.
Pictures credits: Contact the Auction House
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