1796–1875

Camille Corot

Corot is primarily known for his landscape paintings. He was one of the pioneers of open-air painting, and became a kind of father figure for the younger generation of Realists and Impressionists. A central feature of Corot’s work is his “picturesque” motifs, for example in the painted “souvenirs” (memories) from special places in France.

Motifs: Landscapes from Italy and France, sometimes with religious and mythological figures, “souvenir landscapes” and paintings with female figures.

Oil on canvas

25 x 39.5 cm

1835-40

Oil on canvas

25 x 39.5 cm

1835-40

The Windmill

Corot travelled around France and painted landscapes. The motif of the windmill is from the region around Versailles. The painting is very direct in expression, and may have been painted on the spot. Corot’s many pictures of this type are often described as “small gems”, precisely evoking a mood from the place depicted.

He had trained in traditional landscape painting and often in one and the same picture mixed academic composition with less traditional approaches, for example visible brushstrokes and unexpected views of the motif.

In the history of art there is a general tendency to overlook Corot’s more anecdotal and salon-like works with mythological and religious figures or his genre pictures of female figures. Such motifs do not appear to fit so well with the image of Corot as a precursor of Impressionistic open-air painting. Nevertheless they are important in understanding that his landscapes, besides being naturalistic, also have a magical, myth-like effect, compelling in a way that can be compared to works by artists of the Barbizon School.

Oil on canvas

27 x 34 cm

1850

XX

27 x 34 cm

1850

Dancing Nymphs

Oil on canvas

38 x 46 cm

c. 1850-54

XX

38 x 46 cm

c. 1850-54

The Bridge at Mantes

Oil on canvas

40.5 x 32 cm

1850-55

XX

40.5 x 32 cm

1850-55

Young Italian Woman Seated near a Lake

Oil on canvas

34 x 32 cm

c. 1855

XX

34 x 32 cm

c. 1855

The Town of Isigny, Les Hagues, Manche

Charcoal on paper

167 x 217 mm

1859

 

XX

167 x 217 mm

1859

Macbeth and the Witches, Sketch

Oil on canvas

21 x 32.5 cm

1855-60

XX

21 x 32.5 cm

1855-60

Souvenir from the Environs of Amiens, Somme

Oil on canvas

31.5 x 48 cm

1855-60

Oil on canvas

31.5 x 48 cm

1855-60

Memory of a Pond in the Limousin

Oil on canvas

22.5 x 35 cm

1840-60

XX

22.5 x 35 cm

1840-60

Country Road, Côte-d’Or

Oil on canvas

50 x 80.5 cm

1870-75

XX

50 x 80.5 cm

1870-75

Hamlet and the Gravedigger