Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot

Jérôme Ottoz, Paris (by 1880); thence by descent

Alfred Robaut, L'oeuvre de Corot, catalogue raisonné et illustré, Paris, 1905, vol. II, p. 270, no. 840, catalogued; p. 271, illustrated by the author

Original canvas. There are no signs of retouching visible under ultraviolet light. Apart from some light scattered craquelure and surface dirt, this work is in very good original condition and ready to hang. Held in a decorative, gold-painted moulded plaster and wood frame with a name plate.
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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."

This and the following six lots (as well as lots 39, 40 and 66 from the Orientalist Sale) belonged to Jérôme Ottoz, the leading Parisian supplier of artists' materials, and have remained in his family ever since. Through his shop in Rue La Bruyère, Ottoz sold canvases, paints, and frames to many leading artists of the day, including Corot, Fromentin, and Degas, who painted his portrait.

Painted in 1858, the present work shows the corner of a street in Semur near Dijon in Burgundy. To the right of the composition, located just above the Pont Joly which crosses the River Armançon, is the formidable round Tour de l'Orle-d'or. In the distance is the town's gothic cathedral dedicated to St Andrew with its distinctive towers.

It was family ties that brought Corot to Semur: his forebears had lived there, and it was in that part of Burgundy that cousins still remained. In February 1858 the marriage of his great-niece to a local Semur man who completely by chance and being no relation to the artist was also called Corot offered him an excellent reason to reacquaint himself with the area. Invited by the newly-weds, the occasion gave the painter the opportunity to visit Dijon and Troyes as well. In addition to the present work Corot painted a number of other views of Semur, of which Robaut records six, four of which include views of the cathedral (Robaut, nos. 837-842).   

His trip coincided with the exhibition of one of his paintings in Dijon: Le verger painted in 1842. Moreau-Nelaton describes how following its exhibition Corot was so moved by his rediscovery of Semur that he made a donation of the work to Dijon, on the strength that it was the nearest town that could properly accommodate and care for the work (Etienne Moreau-Nelaton, Corot raconté par lui même, Paris, 1924, vol. I, p. 118, discussed).