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Corot
A pupil of Michallon and then Bertin, Corot first came to realize that drawing is the very mainstay of art during his sojourns in Italy. From then on, all his life he constantly drew, initially favouring a sharp black lead pencil, and then an equally fine and delicate ink-pen. Stirred by a deep, innate desire to render nature as it is, the artist soon learned how he could best utilise these two media, doing endless landscape studies from life.
After mainly drawing from life, Corot subsequently began to work increasingly from memory, devoting himself to countless variations on the theme of man in the midst of a mysterious natural setting. In contrast with the incisive handling of the studies done in the early part of his life, the drawings of the later period, with their deep velvety blacks, offer us the key to this imaginary world the artist delighted in, creating from memory countless visions of his journeys through Italy and France. The albums, filled with swift notations and sketches, allow us to follow this perpetual wanderer through all the places that he visited. They contain precious reflections by the artist about himself and his work. Subtle modulations in the single register of black and white, Corot's drawings offer us an admirable lesson of a life in harmony with nature.
After mainly drawing from life, Corot subsequently began to work increasingly from memory, devoting himself to countless variations on the theme of man in the midst of a mysterious natural setting. In contrast with the incisive handling of the studies done in the early part of his life, the drawings of the later period, with their deep velvety blacks, offer us the key to this imaginary world the artist delighted in, creating from memory countless visions of his journeys through Italy and France. The albums, filled with swift notations and sketches, allow us to follow this perpetual wanderer through all the places that he visited. They contain precious reflections by the artist about himself and his work. Subtle modulations in the single register of black and white, Corot's drawings offer us an admirable lesson of a life in harmony with nature.
96 pages, Paperback
First published August 25, 2007
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March 13, 2014
Corot was a prolific sketcher, he filled many visual diaries on his travels. He was always on the move. Italy was very important to Corot's development. This book includes a selection of Corot's many drawings from his trips to Italy. He made three trips to Italy. The first was from 1825 to 1828, the second in 1834, and the last in 1843. I think his plein air painting studies in Italy are his best work, they are still so fresh and have captured the light. They are so very different from his large studio Salon paintings. His plein air oil studies look modern still today.
Corot was always sketching directly from nature, both in pencil and in oil study sketches. These weren't usually shown to the public because public taste at the time demanded highly finished Academic studio paintings.
It notes in this slim volume that 'In Corot's lifetime there was a fairly widespread, unjustified opinion that "Monsieur Corot never could draw".' This book of his sketches from various diaries proves irrefutably to the contrary that Corot was a Master draftsman with a pencil. There is confidence in his line, loose but decisive.
It was in Italy that Corot developed his strength in painting and drawing the human figure.
There is a superb quote by Corot in this book.
"One should embrace the artist's profession only after recognising in oneself an intense passion for Nature and the disposition to pursue it with a perseverance that nothing can shatter - thirst for neither approval nor financial profit. Do not be discouraged by the censure that might fall upon one's works - one must be armoured with a strong conviction which makes one go straight ahead fearing no obstacle. An unremitting task […] an unassailable conscience. (From a sketchbook of 1847)."
Corot was born 17 July 1796. At the age of twenty six in 1822 his parents agreed to let Corot dedicate himself to painting. In 1846 he is made Knight of the Legion of Honour. In 1847 Corot receives a visit from Eugene Delacroix then aged 49, two years younger than Corot. These would have been the times in Paris. I read in The Journal of Eugene Delacroix Delacroix mentions visits to Chopin, and evenings talking with Dumas.
Corot died 22 February 1875. Jean-Leon Gerome attends Corot's funeral, I learnt from the brilliant exhaustive catalogue Jean-Leon Gerome that 'In the course of the funeral oration, the priest launches out on the theme of the immoral life of artists. Finding these remarks intolerable, Gerome leaves the church in indignation.'
I recommend the book Corot in Italy: Open-Air Painting and the Classical-Landscape Tradition by Peter Galassi
Corot was always sketching directly from nature, both in pencil and in oil study sketches. These weren't usually shown to the public because public taste at the time demanded highly finished Academic studio paintings.
It notes in this slim volume that 'In Corot's lifetime there was a fairly widespread, unjustified opinion that "Monsieur Corot never could draw".' This book of his sketches from various diaries proves irrefutably to the contrary that Corot was a Master draftsman with a pencil. There is confidence in his line, loose but decisive.
It was in Italy that Corot developed his strength in painting and drawing the human figure.
There is a superb quote by Corot in this book.
"One should embrace the artist's profession only after recognising in oneself an intense passion for Nature and the disposition to pursue it with a perseverance that nothing can shatter - thirst for neither approval nor financial profit. Do not be discouraged by the censure that might fall upon one's works - one must be armoured with a strong conviction which makes one go straight ahead fearing no obstacle. An unremitting task […] an unassailable conscience. (From a sketchbook of 1847)."
Corot was born 17 July 1796. At the age of twenty six in 1822 his parents agreed to let Corot dedicate himself to painting. In 1846 he is made Knight of the Legion of Honour. In 1847 Corot receives a visit from Eugene Delacroix then aged 49, two years younger than Corot. These would have been the times in Paris. I read in The Journal of Eugene Delacroix Delacroix mentions visits to Chopin, and evenings talking with Dumas.
Corot died 22 February 1875. Jean-Leon Gerome attends Corot's funeral, I learnt from the brilliant exhaustive catalogue Jean-Leon Gerome that 'In the course of the funeral oration, the priest launches out on the theme of the immoral life of artists. Finding these remarks intolerable, Gerome leaves the church in indignation.'
I recommend the book Corot in Italy: Open-Air Painting and the Classical-Landscape Tradition by Peter Galassi
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