Corot painted fewer than fifty portraits. Most were made about 1830 and all depict his family and friends. Lemaistre, an architect, married Corot’s niece Blanche Sennegon (d. 1846) in 1832.
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Title:Toussaint Lemaistre (1807/8–1888)
Artist:Camille Corot (French, Paris 1796–1875 Paris)
Date:1833
Medium:Oil on canvas
Dimensions:15 1/8 x 11 5/8 in. (38.4 x 29.5 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:Bequest of Joan Whitney Payson, 1975
Object Number:1976.201.13
Inscription: Signed and dated (upper right): C. Corot. / 1833.
the sitter (1833–d. 1888); sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, December 2, 1891, no. 14, as "Portrait d'homme, assis et vu jusqu'aux genoux," for approx. Fr 600 to Groult; Groult, Paris (from 1891); sale, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, June 21–22, 1920, no. 51, as "Portrait de homme"; Albert S. Henraux, Paris (by 1928, possibly until d. 1953); [Georges Ambroselli, Paris; until 1963; sold for $100,000 to Payson]; Joan Whitney Payson, New York and Manhasset (1963–d. 1975)
Paris. Paul Rosenberg. "Exposition d'oeuvres de grand maîtres du dix-neuvième siècle," May 3–June 3, 1922, no. 17 (as "Portrait de Monsieur Lemaistre," lent by M. Groult).
Paris. Paul Rosenberg. "Exposition d'oeuvres de Camille J.-B. Corot (1796–1875): figures et paysages d'Italie," June 6–July 7, 1928, no. 10 (as "Portrait de M. Lemaistre," lent by M. A. S. Henraux).
Paris. Musée de l'Orangerie. "Corot," 1936, no. 19 (as "Portrait de M. Lemaistre," lent by M. Albert S. Henraux).
Musée de Lyon. "Exposition Corot," May 24–June 28, 1936, no. 16 (as "Portrait de M. Lemaistre," lent by M. Albert S. Henraux).
Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art. "From Goya to Wyeth: The Joan Whitney Payson Collection," September 13–October 12, 1980, no. 6 (as "Portrait de Monsieur Lemaistre").
Tokyo. Isetan Museum of Art. "From Goya to Wyeth: The Joan Whitney Payson Collection," October 17–December 9, 1980, no. 6.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Barbizon: French Landscapes of the Nineteenth Century," February 4–May 10, 1992, no catalogue (as "M. Lemaistre").
Paris. Galeries nationales du Grand Palais. "Corot 1796–1875," February 27–May 27, 1996, no. 49 (as "Toussaint Lemaistre, architecte").
Ottawa. National Gallery of Canada. "Corot 1796–1875," June 21–September 22, 1996, no. 49.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Corot," October 29, 1996–January 19, 1997, no. 49.
Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe. "Camille Corot: Natur und Traum," September 29, 2012–January 20, 2013, no. 66.
Alfred Robaut. L'Œuvre de Corot: Catalogue raisonné et illustré. [reprint 1965]. Paris, 1905, vol. 2, pp. 88–89, no. 250, ill., calls it "Lemaistre, architecte, neveu par alliance de Corot" and dates it 1833; notes that Lemaistre died in 1888 at the age of 81; remarks that it was once thought to be a portrait by Meyerbeer.
L'amour de l'art 9 (May 1928), ill. p. 172, calls it "Portrait d'homme".
C. Bernheim de Villers. Corot: Peintre de figures. Paris, 1930, pp. 47–48, no. 41, ill., as "Lemaistre".
Preface by Paul Jamot inExposition Corot. Exh. cat., Musée de Lyon. Lyons, 1936, pp. 8–9, no. 16.
Preface by Paul Jamot inCorot. Exh. cat., Musée de l'Orangerie. [Paris], 1936, p. 10, no. 19.
Peter Galassi. Letter to Charles Moffett and Anne Wagner. December 15, 1979, provides biographical details for the sitter.
Katharine Baetjer. European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Artists Born Before 1865: A Summary Catalogue. New York, 1995, p. 403, ill.
Vincent Pomarède inCorot. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1996, pp. 27, 118, 122, 411, no. 49, ill. p. 119 (color) [French ed., "Corot 1796–1875," Paris, pp. 20, 64, 168, no. 49, ill. p. 169 (color)].
19th Century European Art, Including Property from HSBC's Corporate Art Collection. Sotheby's, New York. October 26, 2004, p. 82, calls Corot's "Portrait of a Man" (about 1828–29, lot 52) a precursor to this picture.
Vincent Pomarède inThe Secret Armoire: Corot's Figure Paintings and the World of Reading. Ed. Mariantonia Reinhard-Felice. Exh. cat., Collection Oskar Reinhart "Am Römerholz," Winterthur. Munich, 2011, p. 170 [German ed., "Corot. L'Armoire secrète: Eine Lesende im Kontext"].
Dorit Schäfer inCamille Corot: Natur und Traum. Exh. cat., Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe. Heidelberg, 2012, pp. 128, 465, no. 66, ill. p. 137 (color).
Sébastien Allard. Corot: Le peintre et ses modèles / The Painter and His Models. Exh. cat., Musée Marmottan Monet. Paris, 2018, pp. 47, 58, 62, fig. 8 (color).
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