Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot

Durand-Ruel, Paris
Durand-Ruel, New York
Thomas E. Waggaman, New York (1905)
John Levy Gallery, New York
Sale: Parke-Bernet, New York, October 26, 1955, lot 70
World House Galleries, New York
William C. Kennedy, New York (1958)
Lila Acheson Wallace, Reader's Digest Collection
Salander-O'Reilly Galleries, New York (1993)
Lori Bookstein Fine Art, New York
Acquired from the above in 1998

Wildenstein Galleries, New York (1950s)
Knoedler & Company, New York
Salander-O'Reilly Galleries, New York, Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot and Eugène Delacroix: An Exhibition of Paintings, Drawings and Watercolors, Spring 1986, no. 21

Pierre Deiterle, Marin Dieterle and Claire Lebeau, Corot, Cinquième Supplément à L'oeuvre de Corot par A. Robaut et Moreau-Nélaton, Éditions Floury, 2002, p. 100, no. 97, illustrated p. 101

The following condition report was kindly provided by Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc.: This rapid sketch has a glue lining. The paint layer is probably slightly dirty. Retouches have been applied in the darkest portion of the tree in the upper right and upper center. It is likely that there is some thinness to the paint layer here, but the retouches are not particularly impressive and perhaps a reexamination would be beneficial.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

The spontaneity and freedom which characterize the brushwork in this painting point to it being a plein air sketch; in fact a much larger version of the same subject (47 ½ by 39 in.) is in the Johnson Collection at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.  One may speculate that our picture was painted out-of-doors and served as the model when Corot completed the larger composition in his studio.  The addition of a lioness silhouetted against the setting sun is a curious feature of the painting.  Since Corot's landscape was most likely painted from life, it is doubtful that he encountered a mountain lion during his travels into the French countryside!  It is more plausible that she is the product of Corot's imagination, or a fantasie, similar to the putti, who dance and frolic in Ronde d'Amours: Lever du Soleil (see lot 88).