Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot（1796-1875） was born in Paris. He was raised in a rich family with his father running a cloth wholesale business and his mother a famous ladies' hat shop. His interests were always in painting while he had been educated to succeed to his father's business. When he was 26, in 1822, his parents decided to accept his desire and guarantee him the pension with which he would comfortably live for the rest of his life. This freed him from worries of every day life and helped him to concentrate on painting.
Corot loved nature immensely and frequently drew sketches outdoors. During his three years stay in Italy since 1825, he was very keen on outdoor sketching. Thereby he acquired techniques to capture landscape full of sun light, using bright colors. After this experience, he again traveled to Italy twice more.
Corot gave himself plenty of time to deliberately produce paintings in his studio, based on the sketches he had drawn outdoors. A reason why his paintings look orderly and well balanced is because he restructured the layout of landscape. He has also left remarkable portraits which he drew indoors. "La femme a la perle" (1868-1870, The Louvre Museum) is a good example showing his meticulous observation of the person he was drawing and very accurate depiction of her expressions.
"Landscape of La Ferté-Milon" was drawn in a small village north east to Paris. While it is a small painting, it has captured the spaciousness of the countryside. It was designed in a way that the attention of people seeing this painting would be guided from a hay stack and farming women that are in the left of the painting toward right, to a cow and a farmer, and from a line of trees to the castle. Namely viewers' view is naturally directed from the front toward the back of the painting.
Landscape of La Ferté-Milon
Commentary
Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot（1796-1875） was born in Paris. He was raised in a rich family with his father running a cloth wholesale business and his mother a famous ladies' hat shop. His interests were always in painting while he had been educated to succeed to his father's business. When he was 26, in 1822, his parents decided to accept his desire and guarantee him the pension with which he would comfortably live for the rest of his life. This freed him from worries of every day life and helped him to concentrate on painting.
Corot loved nature immensely and frequently drew sketches outdoors. During his three years stay in Italy since 1825, he was very keen on outdoor sketching. Thereby he acquired techniques to capture landscape full of sun light, using bright colors. After this experience, he again traveled to Italy twice more.
Corot gave himself plenty of time to deliberately produce paintings in his studio, based on the sketches he had drawn outdoors. A reason why his paintings look orderly and well balanced is because he restructured the layout of landscape. He has also left remarkable portraits which he drew indoors. "La femme a la perle" (1868-1870, The Louvre Museum) is a good example showing his meticulous observation of the person he was drawing and very accurate depiction of her expressions.
"Landscape of La Ferté-Milon" was drawn in a small village north east to Paris. While it is a small painting, it has captured the spaciousness of the countryside. It was designed in a way that the attention of people seeing this painting would be guided from a hay stack and farming women that are in the left of the painting toward right, to a cow and a farmer, and from a line of trees to the castle. Namely viewers' view is naturally directed from the front toward the back of the painting.
Reference: "Corot" (Bijutsu Shuppan-Sha, Ltd.) 1974
Painting
Apple Picking
Small Table in Evening Dusk
Song of Songs (Le Cantique des Cantiques)
Haystacks
Waterlilies
Cliff of Gréville
Coutyard at the ‘Rondest House’, Pontoise
Woman Wearing a Hat with Silk Gauze
Delightful Land (Te Nave Nave Fenua)
All Things Die, But All Will Be Resurrected through God’s Love
Wave
Carriage and Pair
Three Dancers in Red Costume
Autumn Sea
Old Horse in the Wasteland
Landscape
Festival of Venis
Hair
Winter Orchard
Beethoven
Landscape of La Ferté-Milon
Annunciation