id: 95275 accession number: 1916.1047 share license status: CC0 url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1916.1047 updated: 2024-03-26 01:56:11.420000 Willows and Farmhouse at Sainte-Catherine-lès-Arras, 1871. Jean Baptiste Camille Corot (French, 1796–1875). Oil on fabric; framed: 59.4 x 72.1 x 9 cm (23 3/8 x 28 3/8 x 3 9/16 in.); unframed: 36.3 x 44.4 cm (14 5/16 x 17 1/2 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. J. H. Wade 1916.1047 title: Willows and Farmhouse at Sainte-Catherine-lès-Arras title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: 1871 creation date earliest: 1871 creation date latest: 1871 current location: creditline: Gift of Mr. and Mrs. J. H. Wade copyright: --- culture: France, 19th century technique: oil on fabric department: Modern European Painting and Sculpture collection: Mod Euro - Painting 1800-1960 type: Painting find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS * Jean Baptiste Camille Corot (French, 1796–1875) - artist Camille Corot's earlier biographers presented him as a naive artist separated from commercial concerns who painted whatever pleased him in the French countryside and from his own emotions. For these writers his importance lay in his loosely painted, atmospheric landscapes, for which later modernists called him the precursor to impressionism. This conception of the artist has undergone significant revision with recent scholarship. Corot never seemed to accept the impressionists' more radical work, especially their enthusiasm for contemporary urban and suburban themes. He represented timeless, rural views disconnected from the industrialization and modernization of nineteenth-century France. Following his father in the clothing trade, Corot worked for eight years before the death of his younger sister in 1821 provided him with the additional income (her annual allowance) to enable him to devote himself to painting. In 1822 he began to study with the landscape painter Achille-Etna Michallon (1796-1822), winner of the first Grand Prix de Rome in historicized landscape, and after Michallon's early death that year, with Bertin (q.v.). Both Michallon and Bertin had trained with Pierre-Henri de Valenciennes (1750-1819), whose later eighteenth-century treatise on landscape painting practice urged artists to study nature closely. In addition, Michallon frequented the village of Barbizon and the forest of Fontainebleau, which would become important subjects for Corot and the group of painters known as the Barbizon school. In 1825 Corot made his first trip to Italy, following in the tradition of the French academy but also the independent precedent of the seventeenth-century French painter Claude Lorrain. There Corot joined an international circle of artists, including Léopold Robert (1794-1835) and Aligny (q.v.), who struggled to resolve the contradictory phases of empirical study out of doors and synthetic recreation in the studio. From Rome, he sent his first submissions to the Paris Salon in 1827, among them The View at Narni (National Gallery of Canada, Ottowa). These early Italian views generally feature a bright, warm light with few areas in shadow. Corot gradually shifted from this early style to one in the 1840s that frequently included larger figures in the middle ground, more complex light effects, and a duller, earthy palette of greens and browns. He continued to use his outdoor works as models for finished canvases but freely adapted the compositions, forms, lighting, and color. The question of finish did not only pertain to the relationship between plein-air studies and studio compositions, which he called paysage composé (invented landscape). Corot sometimes added figures to landscapes that he had painted years earlier and even asked fellow painters such as Diaz de la Peña (q.v.) to paint them. His titles often referred to the geographical location that inspired the image, and some included the word souvenir (broad-ly translated as memory), which suggests recreating or revisiting some experience. The critical reception of Corot's work fluctuated. His first Salon submissions passed the jury, but during the 1830s he was first overlooked and then attacked by the critics. By the 1840s his fortunes had improved, and he even sold one Salon picture to the French state. In more radical circles, the critic-poet Charles Baudelaire held Corot up as a leader in contemporary landscape painting. Corot received the Legion of Honor in 1846 as well as a municipal commission to decorate the baptismal fonts in the church of St. Nicolas du Chardonnet in Paris. In the early 1850s Corot transformed his style again. He developed silvery tones and diffuse lighting effects applied in a few thin layers, over which he added small touches of brighter color for highlights. The soft glimmer and evocative atmosphere of these later works earned him commercial and critical success. During the last decade, Corot turned toward the single figure as subject. The meditative poses and expressions of these figures reminded some contemporary critics of seventeenth-century painting, especially the realism of Spanish and Dutch pictures. But Corot's landscapes remained his most admired work, and during his lifetime imitations or fakes were sold under his name. --- measurements: Framed: 59.4 x 72.1 x 9 cm (23 3/8 x 28 3/8 x 3 9/16 in.); Unframed: 36.3 x 44.4 cm (14 5/16 x 17 1/2 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: inscriptions: inscription: Signed lower left: corot translation: remark: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: The Twentieth Anniversary Exhibition: The Official Art Exhibit of the Great Lakes Exposition opening date: 1936-06-26T04:00:00 The Twentieth Anniversary Exhibition: The Official Art Exhibit of the Great Lakes Exposition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 26-October 4, 1936). title: The Silver Jubilee Exhibition opening date: 1941-06-23T04:00:00 The Silver Jubilee Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 23-September 28, 1941). title: French Drawings and Watercolors from French Public and Private Collections opening date: 1942-01-06T05:00:00 French Drawings and Watercolors from French Public and Private Collections. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (January 6-February 15, 1942). title: 19th and 20th Century French Art and Leonard C. Hanna, Jr. Loans opening date: 1943-06-22T04:00:00 19th and 20th Century French Art and Leonard C. Hanna, Jr. Loans. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 22-September 1, 1943). title: 35th Anniversary Exhibition opening date: 1951-06-20T04:00:00 35th Anniversary Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 20-September 30, 1951). title: Baron Gros, Painter of Battles: The First Romantic Painter opening date: 1956-03-08T05:00:00 Baron Gros, Painter of Battles: The First Romantic Painter. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 8-April 15, 1956). title: Work of Camille Corot opening date: 1960-10-05T04:00:00 Work of Camille Corot. The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL (organizer) (October 5-November 13, 1960). title: Impressionists and their Forebears from Barbizon opening date: 1961-03-08T05:00:00 Impressionists and their Forebears from Barbizon. Dallas Museum for Contemporary Arts, Dallas, TX (organizer) (March 8-April 2, 1961). title: Barbizon School opening date: 1963-01-24T05:00:00 Barbizon School. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 24-March 3, 1963). title: Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot opening date: 1996-02-27T05:00:00 Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot. Réunion des musées nationaux - Grand Palais (organizer) (February 27-May 27, 1996); National Gallery of Canada (June 20-September 22, 1996); The Metropolitan Museum of Art (October 21, 1996-January 19, 1997). title: Stories From Storage opening date: 2021-02-07T05:00:00 Stories From Storage. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 7-May 16, 2021). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS --- PROVENANCE (Probably Goupil Gallery, New York, NY) ca. 1871-72, sold to Bernhard Stern) date: ?1871-1872 footnotes: citations: Bernhard Stern, New York, NY date: by 1872-1890 footnotes: citations: (American Art Galleries, New York, NY, Stern and Evans collections, March 6. 1890, lot 125, sold to Knoedler & Co.) date: 1890 footnotes: citations: (Knoedler & Co., New York, NY, April 12, 1890, sold to Jeptha Homer Wade Jr.) date: 1890 footnotes: citations: Mr. J.H. Wade, Jr. [1957-1926] and Mrs. J. H.Wade, Jr. [1859-1917], Cleveland, OH, by gift to the Cleveland Museum of Art date: 1890-1916 footnotes: citations: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH date: 1916- footnotes: citations: --- fun fact: digital description: wall description: --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS Warner, Langdon. "The Wade Collection." The Bulletin of The Cleveland Museum of Art IV, no. 1 (January, 1917):3-8. page number: Mentioned: p. 3 url: Robaut, Alfred, Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, and Etienne Moreau-Nélaton. L'Œuvre de Corot. Paris, France: H. Floury, 1905. page number: Reproduced: no. 2013, vol. 3 url: Milliken, William. "The 20th Anniversary Exhibition of the Cleveland Museum of Art." ARTnews 34 (June 13, 1936): 7-14. page number: Mentioned: P. 13 url: Coe, Nancy. The History of the Collecting of European Paintings and Drawings in the City of Cleveland. 1955. page number: Reproduced: p. 248, vol. 2 url: Morse, John D. Old Master Paintings in North America. New York, NY: Rand McNally, 1955. page number: Reproduced: p. 40 url: Morse, John D. Old Master Paintings in North America: Over 3000 Masterpieces by 50 Great Artists. New York, NY: Abbeville Press, 1979. page number: Reproduced: p. 66 url: Chong, Alan. European & American Painting in the Cleveland Museum of Art: A Summary Catalogue. Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1993. page number: Reproduced: P. 44 url: D'Argencourt, Louise and Roger Diederen. The Cleveland Museum of Art: Catalogue of Paintings, Part Four; European Paintings of the 19th Century. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1999. page number: Reproduced: p. 58 url: Horbez, Dominique. Corot et les peintres de l'école d'Arras. Tournai, Belgium: La Renaissance du Livre, 2004. page number: Reproduced: p. 115 url: Corot: natura, emozione, ricordo : Madrid, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, 7 giugno-11 settembre 2005, Ferrara, Palazzo dei Diamanti, 9 ottobre 2005-8 gennaio 2006. Ferrara, Spain: Ferrara arte, 2005. page number: Reproduced: p. 153, fig. 67 url: --- IMAGES web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1916.1047/1916.1047_web.jpg print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1916.1047/1916.1047_print.jpg full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1916.1047/1916.1047_full.tif