Fontainebleau: Group of Trees on the Flank of a Rocky Hillside
Returned to lender
This work of art was on loan to the museum and has since been returned to its lender.Corot approached this bravura sketch with equal parts premeditation and improvisation, a method honed during a quarter-century of painting in the Forest of Fontainebleau. Before setting out from his studio, he applied a dull green underpaint to the entire canvas, which he then held in reserve at the lower left to suggest the form of a hill. He subsequently introduced the more diffusely lit foliage beyond it, and finally added the sun-struck dead tree at center.
Corot may have signed this canvas for an admiring collector. It has only been exhibited once before, when it appeared at auction in 1892.
Artwork Details
- Title: Fontainebleau: Group of Trees on the Flank of a Rocky Hillside
- Artist: Camille Corot (French, Paris 1796–1875 Paris)
- Date: ca. 1845–50
- Medium: Oil on canvas
- Dimensions: 16 × 23 3/8 in. (40.6 × 59.4 cm)
- Classification: Paintings
- Credit Line: Louis-Dreyfus Family Collection
- Curatorial Department: European Paintings