COROT, Jean-Baptiste-Camille (Paris, 1796 – Ville-d’Avray, 1875)
Corot studied in Rouen and did not take up painting until the age of 26. In 1822 his family made over to him a substantial annual allowance which enabled him to dedicate himself fully to painting. He entered the studio of Achille-Etna Michallon and Jean Victor Bertin, both Neo-classical landscape painters who trained him to study nature from life even if it were for use in historical landscapes. Also important to Corot’s training was the Monumental Treatise on Landscape of Pierre Henri de Valenciennes, Bertin and Michallon’s teacher.
In 1825 Corot left for Rome for 17th where he made studies of architecture, trees and rocks, effects of light on water and panoramic views, both of Rome itself and the Roman Campagna. These were studies for use in his finished paintings made in the studio, such as View from Narni and The Roman Campagna, shown in the Paris Salon of 1827.
In the 1830s Corot studied 17th-century Dutch and Flemish landscape paintings and the landscapes of contemporary English painters, travelling through France, Switzerland and Italy (in 1834 and 1843) looking for subjects for his paintings. In his desire to render his landscapes more human through the inclusion of figures he dedicated part of his time to painting friends and family members. These, however, were works which he never exhibited in public.
In 1845 Corot took part in the Salon, receiving praise from Baudelaire. In 1846 he received the Legion of Honour. Two years later he was elected a member of the Salon jury. In 1851 he showed his painting Morning. Dance of the Nymphs which marked the beginnings of his mature style—characterised by the creation of poetic landscapes filled with antique figures and possessing a diffused, misty atmosphere halfway between the real and the ideal. Morning. Dance of the Nymphs would be acquired by the French State.
The death of his father in 1847 and of his mother in 1851—with whom he had lived up to that point—allowed him to travel more in France, Switzerland, Belgium and Holland and to deepen his friendships with artists such as Charles-François Daubigny and Constant Dutilleux. In the Exposition Universelle of 1855 he won the First Class medal for his Recollection of Marcoussis which was bought by Napoleon III. The Emperor would also purchase the Recollection of Mortefontaine from the 1864 Salon and Solitude. Recollection of Vigen, Limousin from the 1866 Salon, which he then presented to the Empress. In 1867 he exhibited successfully at the Exposition Universelle and was promoted to the rank of Officer of the Legion de Honour.
In the 1860s and 1870s his paintings, such as those shown in the Salon and the decorative schemes he undertook for the residences of Prince Demidoff, Daubigny and Mme. Castaignet, show a marked reduction in colour, perhaps due to his interest in photography. As well as landscapes Corot produced a number of important paintings of women during these years.
Corot died in Ville-d’Avray on 22 February 1875.
J A L M
<< back