Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot

Corot’s figure paintings occupied an important place in his work throughout his career.  They appear as early as the 1820s, when he was in Italy as a young artist until the 1870s, when he was recognized as one of France’s greatest landscape painters.   However, unlike his landscapes, which he exhibited regularly at the Salon, only four of his figure paintings were presented publicly during his lifetime.  When Corot returned from Italy in the late 1820s, where he had begun to paint the human figure,  his family and friends were delighted (and relieved) to see he had finally become a complete painter (E. Moreau-Nélaton, Corot: Raconté par lui-même, Paris, 1924, vol. I, p. 27).  Perhaps it was this attitude that compelled Corot to continue painting figures, but maybe he was unsure of the critical reception they would receive.  Nevertheless, they were admired by later artists like Cézanne and Picasso, who most likely understood and appreciated their accidental modernity.