Day 311 - Corot



 August 10, 2022

The 25 oil paintings in Gallery 803 are all works by Camille Corot. (I'd speculate that Corot was very popular among art collectors for a while  but became less so over time; hence, the many donations to the Met.) Most of the paintings are small in format, but the selection also includes a large scene depicting Hagar in the wilderness lamenting over a supine Ishmael. Most of the scenes seem to me quite dark. Was this Corot’s standard palette, or would a good cleaning reveal different colors? Or is my vision going?

I’m especially drawn to two works. The first is a small landscape (perhaps 20" wide and 24" high) entitled “ A Lane Through the Trees, " painted between 1870 and 1873, when Corot was between 74 and 77 years old (!). In the painting Corot was clearly playing with gradations of light. The scene depicts a footpath that proceeds on a slight diagonal from the foreground to the middle distance; the tall trees that line the path throw it almost completely into shadow except for a few dapples where sunlight breaks through the leafy canopy. The sun also lights the sides of a couple of tree trunks as well as the meadow visible beyond the trees.  In the foreground, a woman holding a toddler by the hand makes her way down the path; the white head coverings of the two figures supply other points of light.

The second is a smaller painting (perhaps 14” X 18”) executed in 1865 and entitled “The Muse of History.” It shows a pensive figure, seen from the knees up, her eyes cast down and her head resting on her left hand, while her right hand holds a scroll. I'm struck by  how Picasso-esque the figure looks, with its simplified forms. (See, by comparison, Picasso's "Woman in White" of 1923, below, also at the Met.) The woman's face is an oval, her arms cylindrical forms, her clothing (a long overblouse and skirt) unadorned.  I wonder whether Picasso, as a young artist, ever saw the Corot painting. 




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