Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot

Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot (Jul 17, 1796 - Feb 22, 1875) was a French landscape and portrait painter as well as a printmaker in etching He is a pivotal figure in landscape painting and his vast output simultaneously references the Neo-Classical tradition and anticipates the plein-air innovations of Impressionism

Art and technique:
Corot is a pivotal figure in landscape painting His work simultaneously references the Neo-Classical tradition and anticipates the plein-air innovations of Impressionism Of him Claude Monet exclaimed in 1897, "There is only one master here—Corot We are nothing compared to him, nothing" His contributions to figure painting are hardly less important; Degas preferred his figures to his landscapes, and the classical figures of Picasso pay overt homage to Corot's influence

Historians have divided his work into periods, but the points of division are often vague, as he often completed a picture years after he began it In his early period, he painted traditionally and "tight"—with minute exactness, clear outlines, thin brush work, and with absolute definition of objects throughout, with a monochromatic underpainting or ébauche After he reached his 50th year, his methods changed to focus on breadth of tone and an approach to poetic power conveyed with thicker application of paint; and about 20 years later, from about 1865 onwards, his manner of painting became more lyrical, affected with a more impressionistic touch In part, this evolution in expression can be seen as marking the transition from the plein-air paintings of his youth, shot through with warm natural light, to the studio-created landscapes of his late maturity, enveloped in uniform tones of silver In his final 10 years he became the "Père (Father) Corot" of Parisian artistic circles, where he was regarded with personal affection, and acknowledged as one of the five or six greatest landscape painters the world had seen, along with Hobbema, Claude Lorrain, Turner and Constable In his long and productive life, he painted over 3,000 paintings

Though often credited as a precursor of Impressionist practice, Corot approached his landscapes more traditionally than is usually believed Compared to the Impressionists who came later, Corot's palette is restrained, dominated with browns and blacks ("forbidden colors" among the Impressionists), along with dark and silvery green Though appearing at times to be rapid and spontaneous, usually his strokes were controlled and careful, and his compositions well-thought out and generally rendered as simply and concisely as possible, heightening the poetic effect of the imagery As he stated, "I noticed that everything that was done correctly on the first attempt was more true, and the forms more beautiful"

Corot's approach to his subjects was similarly traditional Although he was a major proponent of plein-air studies, he was essentially a studio painter and few of his finished landscapes were completed before the motif For most of his life, Corot would spend his summers travelling and collecting studies and sketches, and his winters finishing more polished, market-ready works For example, the title of his Bathers of the Borromean Isles (1865–70) refers to Lake Maggiore in Italy, despite the fact that Corot had not been to Italy in 20 years His emphasis on drawing images from the imagination and memory rather than direct observation was in line with the tastes of the Salon jurors, of which he was a member

In the 1860s, Corot became interested in photography, taking photos himself and becoming acquainted with many early photographers, which had the effect of suppressing his painting palette even more in sympathy with the monochromic tones of photographs This had the result of making his paintings even less dramatic but somewhat more poetic, a result which caused some critics to cite a monotony in his later work Théophile Thoré wrote that Corot "has only a single octave, extremely limited and in a minor key; a musician would say He knows scarcely more than a single time of day, the morning, and a single color, pale grey"

In his aversion to shocking color, Corot sharply diverged from the up-and-coming Impressionists, who embraced experimentation with vivid hues

In addition to his landscapes (so popular was the late style that there exist numerous forgeries), Corot produced a number of prized figure pictures While the subjects were sometimes placed in pastoral settings, these were mostly studio pieces, drawn from the live model with both specificity and subtlety Like his landscapes, they are characterized by a contemplative lyricism, with his late paintings L’Algérienne (Algerian Woman) and La Jeune Grecque (The Greek Girl) being fine examples Corot painted about fifty portraits, mostly of family and friends He also painted thirteen reclining nudes, with his Les Repos (1860) strikingly similar in pose to Ingres famous Le Grande Odalisque (1814), but Corot's female is instead a rustic bacchante In perhaps his last figure painting, Lady in Blue (1874), Corot achieves an effect reminiscent of Degas, soft yet expressive In all cases of his figure painting, the color is restrained and is remarkable for its strength and purity Corot also executed many etchings and pencil sketches Some of the sketches used a system of visual symbols—circles representing areas of light and squares representing shadow He also experimented with the cliché verre process—a hybrid of photography and engraving Starting in the 1830s, Corot also painted decorative panels and walls in the homes of friends, aided by his students

Corot summed up his approach to art around 1860: "I interpret with my art as much as with my eye"

The works of Corot are housed in museums in France and the Netherlands, Britain, North America and Russia

Influence:
Corot is sometimes called "the father of Impressionism" However, it is an appreciation that must be qualified

His research on light, his predilection for work on the motif and for the landscape seized on the spot anticipate Impressionism But Corot was afraid of upheavals in art and politics, and he remained faithful all his life to the neoclassical tradition in which he had been trained If he has departed from it, towards the end of his career, it is to abandon himself to imagination and sensibility in memories, which announce symbolism as much or more than Impressionism Corot, inspired by Nicolas Poussin and Pierre-Henri de Valenciennes, painted in the open air his studies that he never exhibited, realized his paintings in the studio, and from the 1850s painted pictures of memories made of reminiscences

To make Corot the "father of Impressionism" seems thus to be risky, in particular because the Impressionist current has developed largely outside of it, even in spite of itself, even if it has not remained entirely foreign to it; And too little, because Corot has built a work sufficiently rich and varied to touch all the currents of his time Corot realizes the transition between neoclassical painting and outdoor painting16

Corot himself has influenced a large number of French painters Louis Carbonnel wrote to his wife in 1921: "Without Corot there would be no Gadan or Carbonnel There would be no light "

works:
Corot is best known as a landscape painter, but he is also the author of many portraits (close or fancy figures)

He works fast, with quick and wide touches, and plays on the light, thanks to a great observation

From the moment of his life, Corot fakes (counterfeiters, pasticheurs, not counting the replies by Corot himself or his works which he lends to his pupils, colleagues or friends for copying them), which accredit the legend according to which he Would be the artist who would hold the record for the largest number of forgeries: having painted nearly 3,000 paintings (and as many drawings and engravings) in his lifetime, 10,000 signed versions of the painter would exist in the American collections The collection of Dr Edouard Gaillot or Dr Jousseaume are good examples That of Jousseaume included 2,414 false Corotes collected throughout the life of the collector18: exposed as authentic in 1928 in London, they are even published in an illustrated catalog despite the Catalog raisonné and illustrated works of Corot, reference book19 d ' Alfred Robaut and Étienne Moreau-Nélaton published in 190520

Its signature in capital letters, "COROT", is voluntarily easy to reproduce, hence many false attributes, involuntary or intentional, because of its rating on the art market which, during the twentieth century, sees each Year of hundreds of new works signed by the painter Thus it is difficult to find in France a museum of the fine arts which does not exhibit one of its canvases Moreover, Corot did not hesitate to retouch or rework the paintings of his pupils in a pedagogical concern ("workshop work" common in ancient painting) and, to help some painters in misery, sometimes signed their paintings22

Jules Michelin was his engraver

Among the most famous works, one can quote, chronologically:
Self-portrait, Corot à sa Chevalet (1825), Paris, musée du Louvre
Papigno, steep and wooded banks (1826), Valencia (France), Valencia Museum of Art and Archeology
The Bridge of Narni (1826), Paris, museum of the Louvre
The Colosseum seen from the Farnese Gardens (1826), Paris, Louvre Museum
The Poussin Promenade, Rome countryside, 1825-1828, painting on canvas, 33 × 51 cm, Louvre Museum, Paris
The cauldron of the Villa Medici (1828), Reims, Museum of Fine Arts
Rome, The Tiber at the Castel Sant'Angelo (1826-1828), Paris, Louvre Museum
The Island of San Bartolomeo (1826-1828), Boston, Boston Museum of Fine Arts
Sail boats stranded at Trouville (1829), Paris, Musée d'Orsay
The Cathedral of Chartres (1830), Paris, musée du Louvre (see also mine drawing of lead)
Le Havre The sea seen from the top of the cliffs (1830), museum of the Louvre
Peasant in the forest of Fontainebleau (1830-1832), museum of art and archeology of Senlis
Self-portrait, palette in hand (1830 - 1835?), Florence, Corridor of Vasari, gallery of the self-portraits of the Uffizi Gallery
Portrait of Marie-Louise Laure Sennegon (1831), Paris, musée du Louvre
Volterra, the municipe (1834), Paris, museum of the Louvre
Hagar in the Wilderness' (1835), Metropolitan Museum of Art
View of Florence from the garden of Boboli (1835-1840), oil on canvas, 51 × 735 cm, Musée du Louvre Notice no 000PE000660 [archive], base Joconde, French Ministry of Culture
Flight to Egypt (1840)
The Little Shepherd (1840), Metz, museum of Metz
The Church of Lormes (1841) Boston, Wadsworth Atheneum
A field of wheat in the Morvan (1842) Lyon, museum of fine arts
Marietta, L'Odalisque romaine (1843), Paris, museum of the Petit Palais
Tivoli, the gardens of the Villa d'Este (1843), Paris, Louvre Museum
La Cueillette, (1843), Beaune Museum of Fine Arts24
Portrait of Madame Charmois, Portrait of Claire Sennegon (1845), Paris, musée du Louvre
The Baptism of Christ (1845-1847), Paris, Saint-Nicolas-du-Chardonnet church
Homer and the Shepherds (1845), Saint-Lô, museum of Saint-Lô
View of the Roman Forum (1846), Paris, musée du Louvre
The Church of Rolleboise near Mantes (between 1850 and 1855), Paris, museum of the Louvre
The Port of La Rochelle (1851), New Heaven, Yale University Art Gallery
La Rochelle, the outer harbor (1851), Copenhagen, Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek
La Rochelle, entrance to the port (1851), Paris, collection Georges Renand
A Morning, dance of the Nymphs (1850-1851), Paris, Musée d'Orsay
The Pond of the city of Avray (1855), oil on canvas, museum of the fine arts of Agen
Le Bain de Diane (1855), Museum of Fine Arts of Bordeaux
Cavalier In the Wood (1850-1855), London, National Gallery
Tour along the water (1829), Paris, Musée d'Orsay
The Coup de vent (1855-1860), Reims, Museum of Fine Arts
The Concert champêtre (1857), Chantilly, musée Condé
Nymphs disarming Love (1857), Paris, museum of the Louvre
Prairie and marshes of Corsept in August at the mouth of the Loire (1857), (for the characters only, the landscape being of his friend Charles Le Roux), Paris, Musée d'Orsay
Macbeth (1859), Wallace collection
Girl with her toilet (1860-1865) (oil on cardboard), Paris, museum of the Louvre
The Lake (1861)
Prairie near swamps, Belgrade, National Museum
Souvenir of Mortefontaine (1864), Paris, museum of the Louvre
The Broken Tree (1865)
Pre in front of the Village (1865), Lyon, museum of fine arts
Mantes, the Cathedral and the City seen through the trees, in the evening (1865-1868), Reims, Museum of Fine Arts
Young Woman in the Well (1865-1870), at the State Museum Kröller-Müller
Italian sitting playing the mandolin (1865), collection O Reinhart Winterthur
Agostina (1866), Washington, Washington National Gallery
Reading interrupted (1865-1870), Chicago, Institute of Art of Chicago
The Church of Marissel (1867), Paris, museum of the Louvre
The Pont de Mantes, (1868-1870), Paris, museum of the Louvre
The Woman with the Pearl (1869), Paris, museum of the Louvre
The Belfry of Douai (1871), Paris, museum of the Louvre
L'Étang de Ville-d'Avray (1871), the Museum of Fine Arts of Rouen
Near Arras (1872), Arras, municipal museum
Pastoral - Memories of Italy (1873), Glasgow, Glasgow Corporation Art Gallery
Sin-le-Noble (1873), Paris, museum of the Louvre
Dunkirk, view of the fishing port (1873), collection O Reinhart Winterthur
The Woman in Blue (1874), Paris, musée du Louvre
The Interior of the cathedral of Sens (1874), Paris, musée du Louvre
Reader interrupting his reading (1874), oil on canvas, 55 × 45 cm26
Trees and Rocks in Fontainebleau (19th century, 4th quarter), Arras, Museum of Fine Arts
The Atelier Young Woman with Red Corsage (1853-1865), Paris, Musée d'Orsay
Bohemian dreamer (1865-1870), Paris, private collection
Young Woman Lying, drawing, coll Ernst Rouart
Young Girl with Beret, drawing, Lille, Museum of Fine Arts
Orpheus bringing Eurydice from Hell (1861), Museum of the fine arts, Houston
The Monk in the Cello (1874), Hamburg, Hamburger Kunsthalle
Biblis (1875, posthumously)
The Pleasures of the Evening (1875, posthumously)
Les Bûcheronnes (1875, posthumously), Museum of Fine Arts of Arras?
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