JEAN-BAPTISTE-CAMILLE COROT | DUNKERQUE. UNE PÊCHEUSE DE CREVETTES

The artist (and sold, his sale, M. Boussaton, Paris, April 14, 1858, lot 14, as Environs de Dunkerque) 

Adolphe-Victor Geoffroy-Dechaume, Paris (acquired at the above sale and sold, his sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, April 14, 1893, lot 4, illustrated, as Les dunes de Dunkerque)

Hector Brame, Paris 

Goupil & Cie., Paris, no. 23022 (acquired from the above, May 1893, as Les Dunes) 

Arnold & Tripp, Paris (acquired from the above, October 1893) 

Mrs. John Woodruff Simpson (née Seney), New York (by 1942)

Knoedler & Co., New York (acquired in 1944) 

Sale: Christie's, New York, October 24, 1990, lot 33, illustrated

Acquired in 2009

Alfred Robaut, L'oeuvre de Corot, catalogue raisonné et illustré, Paris, 1965, vol. II, p. 252, no. 761, illustrated p. 253

In September 1857, Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot traveled to Dunkirk, a coastal town near the border of France and Belgium, with fellow artists Constant Dutilleux and Charles Desavary. There Corot painted at least ten oils, the present work included, of Dunkirk’s dunes, fishermen and large harbor.

The following year, Dunkerque. Une pêcheuse de crevettes was sold in the artist’s first auction, under commissaire-priseur and dealer M. Boussaton. Thirty-eight works were offered, with only two unsold, for a total of 14,223 francs, easing the artist’s initial concerns with the sale format. The present work was purchased at this auction by the sculptor Adolphe-Victor Geoffroy-Dechaume.

We would like to thank Martin Dieterle and Claire Lebeau for kindly confirming the authenticity of this lot.