Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot

Chamouillet Collection
Sale: Hôtel Drouot, Paris, February 14, 1887, lot 2
M. Hecht (acquired at the above sale)
Charles André (and sold, his sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, May 17, 1893, lot 1)
Henri Vever (and sold, his sale, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, February 1-2, 1897, lot 31, as Souvenir d'Italie (Effet du matin))
M. Ducray (acquired at the above sale)
Galerie Bernheim Jeune (by 1909 until 1914)  
Sale: Hôtel Drouot, Paris, May 10, 1948, lot 57 (sold together with the following lot)
Galerie Charpentier, Paris
Sale: Hôtel Drouot, Paris, June 6, 1952, lot 49, illustrated
Private Collection (acquired at the above sale)
Thence by descent

Probably, Paris, Salon des Artistes Français, 1848, no. 986 (as Un matin)

Alfred Robaut, L'oeuvre de Corot, catalogue raisonné et illustré, Paris, 1965, vol. II, p. 218, no. 621, illustrated p. 219

The following condition report was kindly provided by Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc.: This work is still stretched on its original stretcher. The paint layer has not been cleaned, and a heavy coat of old varnish is quite visible under ultraviolet light. The varnish is very glossy, which accentuates the cracking to the paint layer. However, the cracking is not unstable or unsightly. Careful cleaning would make the picture ready to hang, and it is doubtful that many, if any, retouches would be necessary.
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.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Upon seeing Nicolas Poussin’s Autumn from his series The Four Seasons (1660-64, Musée du Louvre, Paris), Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot exclaimed “There is nature!” (as quoted in Gary Tinterow, Michael Pantazzi, Vincent Pomarède, Corot, exh. cat., New York, 1996, p. 64). Corot’s admiration of the French master, who lived in Rome, inspired his own early trips to Italy where he worked “all by himself, without any program, entirely naturally, Corot leapt over fifty years of painting, moving from the Neoclassical style to the Impressionist style” (Peter Galassi, Corot in Italy: Open-Air Painting and the Classical Landscape Tradition, New Haven and London, 1991, p. 9). While Corot’s influence on the generation of artists that came after him is clear (see lots 58, 59), it is works by artists such as Poussin and Claude Lorrain that lend insight into Corot’s painterly pedigree. In both Corot’s Le matin (chevrier sous des grands arbres) and Poussin’s Landscape with a Calm (fig. 1, 1650-51, J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles), each a tranquil view of a goat herd in a landscape, narrative is abandoned in favor of mood and atmosphere. The fresh observation of light, sky and landscape can be credited to Poussin’s first hand observation on the sketching trips he made to the Roman country side with his friend and fellow artist, Claude Lorrain, and in Corot’s work his time wandering rural Italy, which would inform such souvenirs for the rest of his career.

Le matin (chevrier sous des grands arbres), and the following lot, Le soir (prairie boisée au bord d'un lac) have remained in private collections together since their initial exhibition at the Salon of 1848. They were later acquired by Corot’s nephew, Charles André, and subsequently Heni Vever, the renowned Art Nouveau jeweler of Maison Vever. His collection of European paintings included masterpieces by the most celebrated artists of the late nineteenth century. Since his landmark sale at Galerie Georges Petit in 1897, when these works were sold, many of the extraordinary works in his collection have found their way to the walls of great institutions, including Corot’s Bacchante by the Sea (1837, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York), Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s Blonde Bather (1881, Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts) and Claude Monet’s La Plage de Sainte-Adresse (1867, The Art Institute of Chicago), among many others.