id: 140078
accession number: 1963.91
share license status: CC0
url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1963.91
updated: 2024-03-26 01:59:05.864000
La Cervara, the Roman Campagna, c. 1830–31. Jean Baptiste Camille Corot (French, 1796–1875). Oil on fabric; framed: 130 x 167.5 x 9.5 cm (51 3/16 x 65 15/16 x 3 3/4 in.); unframed: 97.6 x 135.8 cm (38 7/16 x 53 7/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Leonard C. Hanna, Jr. Fund 1963.91
title: La Cervara, the Roman Campagna
title in original language:
series:
series in original language:
creation date: c. 1830–31
creation date earliest: 1830
creation date latest: 1831
current location: 219 19th Century European
creditline: Leonard C. Hanna, Jr. Fund
copyright:
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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:
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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.
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measurements: Framed: 130 x 167.5 x 9.5 cm (51 3/16 x 65 15/16 x 3 3/4 in.); Unframed: 97.6 x 135.8 cm (38 7/16 x 53 7/16 in.)
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CURRENT EXHIBITIONS
title: Year in Review (1963)
opening date: 1963-11-27T05:00:00
Year in Review (1963). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 27, 1963-January 5, 1964).
title: Corot Exhibition
opening date: 1965-08-14T04:00:00
Corot Exhibition. Gallery of the Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh (organizer) (August 14-September 12, 1965); National Gallery, London, London, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (October 1-November 7, 1965).
title: Visions of Landscape: East and West
opening date: 1982-02-17T05:00:00
Visions of Landscape: East and West. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 17-March 21, 1982).
title: Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot
opening date: 1996-02-27T05:00:00
Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot. National Gallery of Canada (June 20-September 22, 1996); The Metropolitan Museum of Art (October 21, 1996-January 19, 1997).
title: Maestá di Roma, da Napoleon all'Unita d'Italia: Capitale delle Arti
opening date: 2003-03-05T00:00:00
Maestá di Roma, da Napoleon all'Unita d'Italia: Capitale delle Arti. Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna, Rome, Itlay (March 5-June 29, 2003).
title: Masterworks from The Phillips Collection
opening date: 2005-02-20T00:00:00
Masterworks from The Phillips Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 20-May 29, 2005).
title: Corot. Nature, Emotion, Souvenir
opening date: 2005-06-07T00:00:00
Corot. Nature, Emotion, Souvenir. Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, Spain (organizer) (June 7-September 11, 2005); Palazzo dei Diamanti, 44110 Ferrara, Italy (October 9, 2005-January 8, 2006).
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LEGACY EXHIBITIONS
* {'description': 'La Cervara, campagne de Rome. Salon Musée Royal, Paris, France (1831).', 'opening_date': None}
* {'description': 'Corot 1796-1875.Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois (1960). (Lent by Paul Rosenberg).', 'opening_date': '1960-01-01T00:00:00'}
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PROVENANCE
Clément Jourdan [1836-1908], Paris, France, 1889.
date: 1889
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Seganville family, Château St. Pierre-de-Groupiac, France
date:
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citations:
(Probably Harry Sperling, New York.)
date:
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citations:
Paul Rosenberg & Co., Paris and New York, by 1960.
date: 1960-1963
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citations:
Paul Rosenberg & Co., Paris, France and New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art
date: 1963
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The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
date: 1963
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RELATED WORKS
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CITATIONS
Cleveland Museum of Art. Interpretations: Sixty-Five Works from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1991.
page number: Reproduced: no. 28
url:
Robaut, Alfred, and Etienne Moreau-Nélaton. L'Œuvre de Corot. Paris, France: H. Floury, 1905.
page number: Mentioned: p. 46, vol. I
url:
Moreau-Nélaton, Etienne. Corot raconté par lui-même. Paris, France: Henri Laurens, Éditeur, 1924.
page number: Mentioned: p. 22, vol. I
url:
Jal, A. Salon de 1831: ébauches critiques. Paris, France: A.J. Dénain, 1831.
page number: Mentioned: no. 399
url:
Camille Corot, 1796-1875: Kunsthaus Zürich : 16. August-7. Oktober 1934. Zürich, Switzerland: Das Kunsthaus, 1934.
page number: Reproduced: p. 15
url:
Bazin, Germain. Corot. Berlin, Germany: Krüger Verlag, 1942.
page number: Reproduced: p. 90
url:
Baud-Bovy, Daniel. Corot. Genéve, Switzerland: A. Jullien, 1957.
page number: Reproduced: p. 81
url:
Fosca, François. Corot, Sa Vie Et Son Œuvre. Bruxelles, Belgium: Elsevier, 1958.
page number: Reproduced: p. 19
url:
Art Institute of Chicago. Corot, 1796-1875: An Exhibition of His Paintings and Graphic Works, the Art Institute of Chicago, October 6 Through November 13, 1960. Chicago, IL: Art Institute of Chicago, 1960.
page number: Reproduced: no. 19
url:
Saisselin, Remy. "Art is imitation of Nature." The Bulletin of The Cleveland Museum of Art LII (1965): 42-43.
page number: Mentioned: p. 42; Reproduced: p. 43, fig. 1
url:
Arts Council of Great Britain, and Cecil Hilton Monk Gould. Corot. London, United Kingdom: Arts Council, 1965.
page number: Reproduced: no. 18
url:
The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966.
page number: Reproduced: p. 168
url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1966/page/n192
Lurie, Ann T. "Corot: The Roman Campagna." The Bulletin of The Cleveland Museum of Art LIII (1966):51-57.
page number: Reproduced: fig. 1
url:
The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969.
page number: Reproduced: p. 168
url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1969/page/n192
The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978.
page number: Reproduced: p. 207
url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1978/page/n227
Talbot, William S. "Some French Landscapes: 1779-1842." The Bulletin of The Cleveland Museum of Art LXV (1978): 84-85.
page number: Reproduced: fig. 12
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:
Wissman, Fronia E. J.-B.-C. Corot: View of Volterra. San Diego, CA: [Timken Art Gallery], 1988.
page number: Mentioned: p. 9, 15; Reproduced: fig. 10.
url:
Galassi, Peter. Corot in Italy: Open-Air Painting and the Classical-Landscape Tradition. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1991.
page number:
url:
Chagneau,Catherine, and Marie-France Cocheteux. Corot, 1796-1875: [expositions] Paris, Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, 28 février-27 mai 1996 ; Ottawa, Musée des beaux-arts du Canada, 21 juin-22 septembre 1996 ; New York, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 22 octobre 1996-19 janvier 1997. Paris, France: Réunion des musées nationaux, 1996.
page number: Mentioned: p. 22, 80-85;Reproduced: no. 30
url:
Pomarède, Vincent. Corot. Paris, France: Flammarion, 1996.
page number: Reproduced: p.74,75; Mentioned p. 98
url:
Rubin, James Henry. Courbet. London, United Kingdom: Phaidon, 1997.
page number: Reproduced: p. 223; Mentioned: p. 225
url:
Azeglio, Massimo d', and Martina Corgnati. Massimo d'Azeglio: pittore. Milano, Italy: Mazzotta, 1998.
page number: Reproduced: p. 45
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. 55
url:
De Rosa, Pier Andrea, and Paolo Emilio Trastulli. La campagna romana: cento dipinti inediti tra fine Settecento e primo Novecento. Roma, Italy: Studio Ottocento, 1999.
page number: Reproduced: p. 196, no. 93
url:
Rosenberg, Pierre, and Jean-Pierre Caillet. La peinture française. Paris, France: Mengès, 2001.
page number: Reproduced: p. 605; Mentioned: p. 673
url:
Susinno, Stefano, Sandra Pinto, Liliana Barroero, Fernando Mazzocca, Giovanna Capitelli, and Matteo Lafranconi. Maestà di Roma: da Napoleone all'unità d'Italia. Milano, Italy: Electa, 2003.
page number: Reproduced: p. 354, vol. 6
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, Italy: Ferrara arte, 2005.
page number: Mentioned and reproduced: p. 139, fig. 14
url:
Pomarède, Vincent, and Michael Clarke. Corot: naturaleza, emoción, recuerdo. Madrid, Spain: Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, 2005.
page number:
url:
Cleveland Museum of Art. The CMA Companion: A Guide to the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2014.
page number: Mentioned and reproduced: P. 287
url:
Mazzocca, Fernando. "Grand tour: Il fascino delle antiche rovine e lo splendore della natura mediterranea." Art e dossier no.392, Suppl.(November 2021): 27-35.
page number: reproduced p.30
url:
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IMAGES
web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1963.91/1963.91_web.jpg
print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1963.91/1963.91_print.jpg
full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1963.91/1963.91_full.tif