Diana and Actaeon is one of Corot's earliest treatments of a subject from ancient mythology. In representing a classical subject in an Arcadian landscape, Corot was responding to the example of Poussin, the greatest French master of the seventeenth century. The section of landscape at the upper left, executed in the loose brushwork and silvery palette of Corot's late style, was repainted by the artist in 1874, one year before his death, at the request of the painting's new owner.

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