Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot

Estate of the artist (sale: Vente Corot, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 26-28 May 1875, lot 165)
Henri Hecht (purchased at the above sale; posthumous sale: Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 8 June 1891, lot 3)
Aimé Diot (sale: Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 7 March 1897, lot 34)
Samuel Putnam Avery Jr., New York
Emerson McMillin, New York (sale: American Art Assocation, New York, 20-23 January 1913, lot 153)
Chas Kohler (purchased at the above sale)
Galerie Dr Fritz Nathan, St Gallen (by 1939)
Robert Vatter, Bern (by 1960)

St. Gallen, Galerie Dr Fritz Nathan, Gemälde und Handzeichnungen ersten Ranges von 1870 bis zur Gegenwart, 1939, no. 5, illustrated in the catalogue
St. Gallen, Galerie Dr Fritz Nathan, Zehn Jahre Tätigkeit in St. Gallen 1936–1946, 1946
Bern, Kunstmuseum, Corot, 1960, no. 59 (as Morgen unter Bäumen)

L'Art, 18 February 1883, illustrated
Alfred Robaut, L'Œuvre de Corot: Catalogue raisonné et illustré, Paris, 1905, vol. II, p. 272, no. 846, catalogued; p. 273, illustrated; vol. IV, p. 210, catalogued & illustrated (in the listing of the Vente Corot)

The canvas has been relined. There is a faint pattern of craquelure overall visible under close inspection. Under ultraviolet light the old varnish fluoresces quite opaquely in parts, however there appear to be only some minimal signs of retouching: primarily flecks along the framing edges and some minor very fine lines adressing craquelure in the lower half. The painting is in good condition and is ready to hang. Held in a decorative gilt frame.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
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."

Painted near Isigny in Normandy circa 1855-60, Le matin sous les arbres makes for a fascinating comparison with the painting for which it serves as a study, La Bacchante, shown at the Salon of 1865 (fig. 1, Robaut no. 1635).

While the Salon painting exemplifies Corot's lyrical compositions of the 1860s and is a self-confessed retreat from the external world, painted in wispy strokes and peopled by an arcadian figure and winged cherubs, the present work is altogether more naturalistic and akin to the brushy plein-air paintings of Courbet, the early Pissaro, Monet, and Sisley. It goes to show that even while in his publicly exhibited works Corot was distancing himself from the encroaching modern world, these poetic souvenirs were still predicated on very real observations rooted in time and place.

Corot's observation of light based on sketches made en plein air, and his ability to capture an impression of the moment, make him an important precursor of what Edmond Duranty in 1876 termed 'The New Painting', in other words Impressionism, the roots of which, he claimed, 'lie in the work of the great Corot and his disciple Chintreuil' (E. Duranty, La Nouvelle Peinture - A propos du groupe d'artistes qui expose dans les galeries Durand-Ruel, Paris, 1876, quoted in Les écrivains devant l'impressionisme, Paris, 1989, p. 118).

Another version of the present composition exists measuring 101 by 76cm., however this is a collaboration between Corot and Achille François Oudinot.