Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot

Corot's studio;
His deceased sale, Paris, Hôtel Drouot, May 26-28, 1875, lot 266;
There purchased by M. Derindinger, Paris;
With Allard et Noël, Paris, 1882;
Etienne Dumas, Paris, circa 1890;
Alan Pakula, New York;
Anonymous sale, New York, Christie's, May 5, 1998, lot 4;
There purchased by the present owner.

A. Robaut, L'Oeuvre de Corot: catalogue raisonné et illustré, Paris 1965 (revised reprint of 1905 publication), vol. II, p. 20, no. 50, illustrated p. 21.

The following condition report has been provided by Simon Parkes of Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc. 502 East 74th St. New York, NY 212-734-3920, simonparkes@msn.com , an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This picture is painted on paper en plein air, was subsequently mounted onto board, which was then backed with what seems to be the original lining canvas, and also accompanied by the original thinned stretcher. This method of presentation seems to be very successful and change to the structural condition of the picture is not recommended. The paint layer itself is in lovely condition, although it is most likely slightly dirty. There appear to be no restorations and if the picture were to be cleaned, only a varnish need be applied. There are a couple of tiny specks in the water in the lower left and a dot in the upper middle sky, which could be retouched if necessary.
"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."

When Corot arrived in Rome in December 1825, he saw the same panoramas that had attracted artists for several centuries before him.  Over the next five months, he painted the rooftops of Rome from the window of his room near the Piazza di Spagna; he captured the city's ancient ruins from various vantage points; he recorded Rome's inhabitants, who became in essence the subjects of his earliest figure paintings; and he traveled into the countryside, where the Italian landscape provided him with a new setting, very different from his native France.

On the Banks of the Tiber is dated Janvier 1826, and is therefore one of the earliest documented paintings from Corot's first trip to Italy.  It is inscribed in a manner which is characteristic of many of his early Italian works, where Corot incised the date directly into the wet paint with the pointed tip of the handle of the brush.  The subject is the Aventine Hill which is crowned with a monastery.  The buildings cast in shadow at the far right are located on the Isola Tiberina, a small island in the center of the Tiber. The rounded, dark grassy shape in the center of the river is what remains of the support for a bridge that once connected the Aventine Hill with the Isola Tiberina.

Like most of Corot's works from his early Italian period, this painting is executed in a fluid, plein-air technique - a technique which Martin Dieterle has called "drawing in oil," the goal being to create a rapid  "snapshot" of a specific location and time of day.  The result is spontaneous and captures an immediate visual impression.  Additionally, these early Roman views are characterized by Corot's unique treatment of light, as he saw it reflected off the Tiber and especially in the way it defined the architecture of the city.  In the present painting, the buildings on the Aventine Hill are awash in the pearly light of the winter sun that is hidden behind an overcast sky.  The juxtaposed areas of light and shadow are differentiated by the blocky, cubist shapes of the architecture, a technique he repeated three months later in his March 1826 View of the Forum seen from the Farnese Gardens (fig. 1).  In a daring move, Corot introduces a bold repoussoir in the lower right of the composition of the present painting.  Taking up almost one third of the picture plane, Corot shows a section of the rolling hills of the Isola Tiberina as a series of undulating, blue-green striations. All of this is so ahead of its time; seen as a whole or broken down into sections, every detail of this painting turns into an abstract idea.

We are grateful to Martin Dieterle and Claire Lebeau for kindly confirming the authenticity of this work.