Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot (French, 1796-1875) Bords d'une riviere avec deux clochers emergeant des arbres

Description:

Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot (French, 1796-1875)

Bords d'une riviere avec deux clochers emergeant des arbres
Signed "COROT" l.l.
Oil on panel, 8 7/8 x 17 3/8 in. (22.5 x 44.0 cm),framed (under glass).
Condition: Cradled, minute scattered retouch, fine scattered craquelure subtle surface grime.

Provenance: The collection of MM. Arnold and Tripp, 1893, through to Ellwood R. Burdsall, circa 1927, then by descent to the present owner.

Literature: Alfred Robaut, L'Oeuvre de Corot: Catalogue Raisonne et Illustre, (Paris, 1965),entry 1454.

N.B. Jean Baptiste-Camille Corot was a seminal figure in 19th century landscape painting, producing works that inspired both contemporary and future artists, in particular, the Impressionists. Corot was trained in Neoclassical painting, studying the works of Achille-Etna Michallon and Jean Victor Bertin, but he was also aware of new trends in landscape painting which began to emerge in England in the 18th century. Artists were beginning to sketch outdoors and were more aware of light and shade and a new ³appreciation of nature and the relaxing of rigid ways of thinking about landscape² developed.1 Corot embraced this new approach to painting and produced works that displayed the ³new code of the picturesque²2 and included elements of Neoclassicism, Romanticism, Realism, and the Barbizon School. His carefully balanced compositions have with an ³optical
denseness²3 created through soft, feathering strokes and subtle tones. ³In Corot¹s pictures, soft semi-transparent veils of tone mingle in his painted trees, water surfaces, and reflections. There is almost nothing of substance besides differently brushed passages of close-valued tones²4

Robaut dated this work to between 1865 and 1870. Although there is early documentation of this work, its location was unknown and it is a recent ³re-discovery.²

1. Weisberg, Gabriel P., ³Issues in the Work of Camille Corot,² from the exhibition catalog J-B Camille Corot, (Art Life Ltd., 1989),p. 17.

2. Ibid., 17.

3. Champa, Kermit S., et al., The Rise of Landscape Painting in France, Corot to Monet, (New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1991) p. 116.

4. Ibid., 116.

Estimate $60,000-80,000

Minor scattered retouch with some areas of pigment flourescence and/or mild varnish inconsistencies. There is an extremely mild surface split to panel u.r. Fine, stable craquelure is unobtrusive. The work might benefit from a gentle cleaning.

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