Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot

Estate of the artist (and sold, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, Vente Corot, May 29 - June 9, 1875, lot 80)
Collection Hector Brame
Ernest May, Paris (and sold, his sale June 4, 1890, lot 27)
Jacques Ernest-May, Paris
Christian Lazard, Paris
Private Collection (and sold: Piasa: Paris, December 8, 2004, lot 9, illustrated)
Galerie Schmit, Paris
Acquired from the above

Paris, Galerie Paul Rosenberg, Oeuvres des grands maîtres du XIXe siècle, 1922, no. 18
Paris, Petit Palais, Paysage français de Poussin à Corot,  May - June 1925, no. 62
Paris, Galerie Paul Rosenberg, Camille Corot, figures et paysages d'Italie, June 6–July 7, 1928, no. 12
Paris, Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Les artistes français en Italie, 1934, no. 78
Paris, Orangerie des Tuileries, Corot, 1936, no. 24
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Corot, 1946, no. 17
Paris, A. Daber, Corot, 1965, no. 27
Musée de Dieppe, Corot, July - September, 1958, no. 11
Bern, Kunstmuseum, Corot, January - March 1960, no. 22
Rome, Palazzo delle Esposizioni, L'Italia vista dai pittori francesi del XVIII e XIX secolo, 1961, no.  83
Paris, Galerie Schmit, Corot, May 12 - June 12, 1971, no. 10
Paris, Orangerie des Tuileries, Hommage à Corot, June - September, 1975, no. 33
Paris, Galerie Schmit, Corot dans les collections privées, April 24 - July 9, 1996

Alfred Robaut, L'oeuvre de Corot: catalogue raisonné et illustré, 1965, vol. II, p. 112, no. 317, illustrated p. 113

The following condition report was kindly provided by Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc.: This work has an old French lining, which is effective and should remain. The painting has not been recently restored and may be slightly dirty. A few slightly discolored retouches can be seen with the naked eye in the upper center sky and in a couple of other spots in the upper left. These do not seem to attend to any real losses; they probably address typical plein air looseness. The other area which seems to have received some retouching is in the canal on the left side. A pentiment of a gondola may have slightly reappeared here and received some cosmetic retouches. These retouches are not clearly visible under ultraviolet light, but they may be removed if the picture is cleaned. The condition of this impressive work is extremely good.
"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."

Corot made a short stopover in Venice at the end of his first trip to Italy in July 1828. A quickly executed plein air sketch, inscribed Venise, 12 Juillet, is one of the five known Venetian views from this visit (fig. 1).  Corot was not charmed by the city; he found it hot and humid and his stay may have been cut short due to an outbreak of cholera.  Nevertheless when he returned to Italy in 1834, he included Venice on his itinerary.  Arriving on August 15, he stayed almost a month, and chose to return to the exact site depicted in his earlier sketch:   a view of Santa Maria della Salute from the Campo della Carita, the subject of the present work.

Émile Michel, an early Corot biographer noted that “Venice had delighted him above all… He was particularly struck by the transparency of the salt air, by the brilliance of the light, by the joyful coloration of the buildings that the waters of the Grand Canal reflect with still more delectable intonations” and another biographer, Étienne Moreau-Nélaton commented, “on six or eight small canvases [Corot] carried  Venice with him” (as quoted in Gary Tinterow, Michael Pantazzi and Vincent Pomarède, Corot, exh. cat., New York, 1996, p. 130; Étienne Moreau-Nélaton, Histoire de Corot et de ses oeuvres, Paris, 1905, p. 60). 

While certain Venetian views inspired by Corot’s 1834 campaign were composed later in his Paris studio and pay homage to the tradition of Canaletto (see: Robaut 322 and 323), the small scale and spontaneity of the present work and that it was executed on paper suggest that it was painted from nature.  The simple forms of the buildings, pavement, gondolas and figures and the differentiation between light and shadow combine to reveal a spontaneity that corresponds to the finest examples of Corot’s earliest plein-air cityscapes of Italy.  Even without the recognizable Venetian landmarks, the depiction of the soft, almost invisible cloudy mist that prevails in the painting confirms the location; it can be nowhere other than Venice, and this is Corot’s genius at work in his early Italian pictures. 

The present work originally belonged to the well-known French financier, Ernest May.  His impressive collection also included important works by Édouard Manet and Edgar Degas.  May is best remembered for appearing as a central figure in Degas’ Portraits at the Stock Exchange.