Physical description
A female figure looking after two cows, one black and one brown, is standing in a marshy pasture. In the middle distance bushes and trees reach from the right to the centre of the composition. A village and tower bell appear in the horizon.
Place of Origin
France (painted)
Date
ca. 1855-1860 (painted)
Artist/maker
Corot, Jean-Baptiste-Camille, born 1796 - died 1875 (maker)
Materials and Techniques
oil on canvas
Marks and inscriptions
'Tableaux et dessins, Durand Ruel, 1 rue de la Paix'
Dimensions
Width: 23.2 cm estimate, Height: 18 cm estimate, Weight: 5 kg with frame, Height: 46.3 cm framed, Width: 53.5 cm framed
Object history note
The painting was purchased by Constantine Alexander Ionides before 1881, for the price of £80 (cf. 'Effet de Matin' by Corot in Ionides' manuscript inventory, private collection). He possibly acquired it from the firm Durand-Ruel, who had sales rooms in London between 1870 and 1876. CAI 66 was bequeathed to the Museum by Ionides in 1900.
Historical significance: This painting could not be identified with any of the listed works in the only catalogue raisonné of the artist (Robaut, 1905) but it appears to be is a fine example of Corot's later period. CAI.66 shows two cows looked after by a female figure in the foreground, the scene is framed by tall trees and the silhouette of a village with a tower bell appears in the horizon.
This painting is a fine example of Corot's mastery of rendering different effects of light. Here particularly notable is the diffuse bright albeit weak light of the early morning. The cool palette is quite typical of his late period when he moved away from the warm representation of the Italian countryside to focus on landscape painting only vaguely reminiscent of places.
According to an inscription on the stretcher in the back, this painting belonged to the famous art dealer Paul Durand-Ruel (1831-1922) whom Corot met.
Corot was famous for his direct observation of nature he nevertheless often re-elaborated in his studio. This artistic practice derived from his master's dictum, Michallon, to paint out of doors directly from the motif but was also inspired by the landscapes of Claude Lorrain (1604-1682) and 17th-century Dutch masters.
Another example of this late period's output is CAI.65 which shows a landscape at twilight.
Historical context note
Although France and England became the new centres of landscape art in the 18th century, the Italian and Dutch traditions retained their authority. However the Arcadian vision of Italy increasingly tended towards a more precise observation of nature. Some of the most exciting developments took place in Venice, in the soft scenes of Francesco Zuccarelli (1702-1788), inspired by Claude Lorrain (1604-1682), and the fresh, spontaneous landscapes of Marco Ricci (1676-1730). Wealthy patrons, often accompanied by artists, on The Grand Tour, created a market for veduta and capriccio paintings, respectively topographical and fantasist landscape paintings. Landscape conventions were further enriched by foreign artists working in Italy, responding both to the beauty of Italian light and scenery celebrated by the Latin poets and vividly captured in the most popular landscapes of Claude Lorrain, Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665) and Gaspard Dughet (1615-1675).
Descriptive line
Oil on canvas, 'Morning: Landscape with Two Cows and a Figure', Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, France, ca. 1855-1860
Bibliographic References (Citation, Note/Abstract, NAL no)
C.M. Kauffmann, Catalogue of Foreign Paintings, II. 1800-1900, London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 1973, p. 20, cat. no. 52.
The following is the full text of the entry:
Jean Baptiste Camille COROT (1796-1875)
French School
Born in Paris, he began painting full-time in 1822, studying with the classicizing landscape painters Achille Michallon and Victor Bertin. He worked out of doors in Fontainebleau and elsewhere until his visit to Italy in 1825-28, which transformed his style. He visited Italy again in 1834 and 1843 but most of the rest of his life was spent in Paris and its environs and at Fontainebleau, where, from the turn of the mid-century, he frequently met the artists of the Barbizon group. His style remained a mixture of Italian classicism and Barbizon realism. He exhibited in the Salon from 1827, gradually achieved recognition, receiving official commissions from the 1840s and being made a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour in 1846.
Lit. A. Robaut and E. Moreau-Nelaton, L'oeuvre de Corot, Paris, 1905; G. Bazin, Corot, rev. ed., Paris, 1951.
52
MORNING: LANDSCAPE WITH TWO COWS AND A FIGURE
Signed lower left COROT
Canvas
7 1/8 x 9 1/8 (18 x 23.2)
Ionides Bequest
CAI.66
Both style and subject fit most convincingly in the period ca. 1855-65.
Prov. Apparently acquired by Constantine Alexander Ionides after 1884; bequeathed to the Museum in 1900.
Lit. Sir C. Holmes in Burl. Mag., vi, 1904-05, p. 27, repr. P. 33; Anon. in Athenaeum, 23 July 1904, p. 119; Long, Cat. Ionides Coll., 1925, p. 12, pl. 7; V.&A. Museum, The Barbizon School, 1965, p. 15, pl. 2.
Sir Charles Holmes in Burlington Magazine vol. vi, 1904, p. 33.
'An exquisite example of an exquisite painter'
B.S. Long, Catalogue of the Constantine Alexander Ionides collection. Vol. 1, Paintings in oil, tempera and water-colour, together with certain of the drawings, London, 1925, p. 12, pl. 7.
The Athenaeum, 23rd July 1904, p. 119.
'Delightful but insignificant'
A. Robaut, L'oeuvre de Corot, paris, 1905, either p. 371 or 377, 383, 389, 391.
C.M. Kauffmann, The Barbizon School, London: V&A, 1965, p. 15, pl. 2.
Materials
Oil paint; Canvas
Techniques
Oil painting
Subjects depicted
Landscape; Female; Cow; Village; Marsh; Pasture
Categories
Paintings
Collection code
PDP
