JEAN-BAPTISTE-CAMILLE COROT | PARC DE SAINT-GERMAIN

Prevost Collection (by 1873)

Wildenstein & Co., New York and Paris 

Alfred Robaut, L'oeuvre de Corot, catalogue raisonné et illustré, Paris, 1965, vol. II, p. 268, no. 831, illustrated p. 269, as canvas on panel

Parc de Saint-Germain, now called Parc de l'île Saint-Germain, sits on an island in the Seine in the 16th arrondissement. Corot would have passed it on his many trips from his Paris studio to Ville d’Avray, where he was born and always kept a home. The environs of Paris, such as the Parc de Saint-Germain, the Bois de Boulogne and the Forêt de Fontainebleu, remained relatively rural and unpopulated in the nineteenth century providing the respite of nature celebrated by so many contemporary artists, and especially the Impressionists. Roads are a recurring motif in Corot’s landscapes, and in this work a single woman meanders on a wide path leading towards the Seine, which placidly flows in the distance. Colorful flowers and a fountain at the center of the composition add to the sense of calm and quiet that pervades this picture.