Corot

Pantazzi, Michael, Vincent Pomarède, and Gary Tinterow (1996)

This title is out of print.

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Description

Two hundred years after the birth of Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot (1796–1875), 163 of the French artist's finest paintings have been brought together in an important exhibition that allows a public on both sides of the Atlantic to rediscover the riches and pleasures of his art. Corot, an original painter who produced a body of work of exceptional range, has been many things to many viewers. His silvery landscapes were adored by nineteenth-century collectors, and his sparkling sketches painted in plein air were later hailed as precursors of Impressionism. Art lovers have prized his figures paintings, the least well known and perhaps the most modern of all his works.

Corot's long and prolific career coincided with major artistic developments: the flourishing of Neoclassical, Romantic, and Realist tendencies; the Barbizon school; the rise of Impressionism. Although he has been claimed at various times for each of these movements, Corot defies categorization. His art was fueled by a profound love of the natural world, and the vision he pursued was his own. This catalogue of the exhibition recounts the engrossing progress of his life and art.

Corot's traditional education took him to Italy, where he painted crystalline outdoor oil studies and dedicated himself to mastering the art of classical landscape painting—a fascinating apprenticeship that is here carefully described. On his return to France he sought out views of great diversity and was among the first artists to frequent the forest of Fontainebleau. Working from his open-air studies he composed ambitious historical and mythological landscapes to exhibit at the Salons, but for some time these drew little favorable response. Undaunted, Corot continued to paint landscapes and to people them with figures of his own imagining, evolving a distinctive, poetic style. Both the critics and the public eventually grew enthusiastic, and in his later years Corot was a revered master, inundated by requests for pictures and instruction. A more private part of his oeuvre consists of the remarkable figure paintings, often depicting women in pensive attitudes, that the artist produced during this late period. Their purity and power have been admired by subsequent generations of artists. Hearty, generous, beloved, Corot was a man of good cheer but a painter of deep emotion and delicacy.

Each painting catalogued in this book is accompanied by a full art-historical discussion. Three major essays chronicle Corot's life and the development of his art; additional essays elucidate the vexed subject of forgeries and describe the collecting of his works. The volume contains much original new scholarship, a full review of the scholarly literature, a chronology, and a concordance, and it is meticulously documented throughout.

This book is published in conjunction with the exhibition "Corot," held at the Grand Palais, Paris, from February 27 to May 27, 1996; at the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, from June 21 to September 22, 1996; and at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, from October 22, 1996, to January 19, 1997.

Table of contents

Lenders to the Exhibition
Foreword
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Note to the Reader

1821–34: The Making of An Artist
Vincent Pomarède

1835–58: The Greatest Landscape Painter of Our Time
Michael Pantazzi

1859–75: Le Père Corot: The Very Poet of Landscape
Gary Tinterow

Corot Forgeries: Is the Artist Responsible?
Vincent Pomarède

Corot and His Collectors
Michael Pantazzi

Chronology
Bibliography
Concordance of Catalogued Works
Index of Cited Works
Index of Former Owners
General Index
Photograph Credits

About the authors

Gary Tinterow is Engelhard Curator of European Paintings, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Michael Pantazzi is Curator of European Paintings, The National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa.

Vincent Pomarède is Curator of Paintings, the Musée du Louvre, Paris.

Press reviews

Choice Reviews Online

"Here is a well-chosen selection of inspired works. Evidence of Corot's singular contribution is found within these readable pages covering the artist's life story, the circumstances of each painting, all phases of his talent, and his appealing personality. A diverse and appreciative audience will likely include artists in most media, naturalists, environmentalists, and students of the 19th century. Reproductions are of fine quality."

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