Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot French, 1796-1875

Sale: Hôtel Drouot, Vente Corot, Paris, 26-28 May 1875, lot 454
Georges Lemaistre, the artist's nephew
Marshall Field, Chicago
Albert B. Coates, Virginia and Minnesota (by 1922) and thence by descent
Armand du Vannes, Los Angeles
Sale: Christie's, New York, 22 May, 1990, lot 132
Purchased by the present owner at the above sale

Alfred Robaut, L'oeuvre de Corot, Paris, 1905, vol. III, pp. 188-189, no. 1758, illustrated
J. Normile, 'The Barbizon School', Architectural Digest, March 1975, p. 78

This condition report has been provided by Hamish Dewar, Hamish Dewar Ltd. Fine Art Conservation, 14 Masons Yard, Duke Street, St James's, London SW1Y 6BU. Examination report unconditional and without prejudice Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot Les Pres de la Petite Ferme oil on canvas Structural Condition The canvas is unlined and is providing a sound and secure structural support Paint Surface The paint surface has an even varnish layer. A number of small retouchings are visible under ultra-violet light, the most significant of which are: 1) scattered spots and lines in the upper right of the sky, all of which are very small 2) further small spots and lines around the figures and trees in the lower left and lower right, and 3) a very thin vertical line (approximately 6cms in length) which joins a thin horizontal line (approximately 5cms in length). It should be stressed that these are all either minimal spots or very thin lines. Summary The painting appears to be in good and stable condition and no further work is required.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Painted 1860-70.

Corot's lyrical landscapes were part of his self-confessed retreat from the external world. He expressed his lack of sympathy for much that was going on around him in artistic circles in a remark to Millet's biographer, Alfred Sensier, in 1857: ' This is for me a new world which I no longer recognise; I am too attached to the past...If you understand what I am saying, I want to make a new art for myself.' (Etienne Moreau-Nélaton, Histoire de Corot et ses oeuvres, Paris, 1905, p. 180).

This escapism accords perfectly with Corot's paintings of the 1860s, be they his Salon pictures or the innumerable smaller works he also produced for an increasingly enthusiastic public. Corot was not alone in producing such ethereal visions of nature and in the 1850s and 1860s there developed a considerable school of pastoral landscape painting in France, particularly in the environs of Paris, which had suffered from what some perceived to be its dehumanisation on account of the pulling down of the old quartiers and construction of the grands boulevards under Baron Haussmann.

Yet at the same time works such as the present one were as modern in their execution as they were escapist in their subject. Corot's observation of light based on sketches made en plein air, and his ability to capture an impression of the moment, make him an important precursor of what Edmond Duranty in 1876 termed 'The New Painting', in other words Impressionism, the roots of which, he claimed, 'lie in the work of the great Corot and his disciple Chintreuil' (E. Duranty, La Nouvelle Peinture - A propos du groupe d'artistes qui expose dans les galeries Durand-Ruel, Paris, 1876, quoted in Les écrivains devant l'impressionisme, Paris, 1989, p. 118).

The authenticity of this work has been confirmed by Martin Dieterle and Claire Lebeau.