Lines and Colors art blog

Eye Candy for Today: Corot early Spring landscape

Les étangs de ville d'avray (The Ponds of the Village of Avray), Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot, oil painting, 19th century French landscape
Les étangs de ville d’avray (The Ponds of the Village of Avray), Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot

Link is to Wikimedia Commons; they sourced it from a Sotheby’s auction, so I don’t know the current location of the original — perhaps in a private collection.

Corot gives us an idyllic depiction of the gentle beginnings of Spring, in sharp contrast to the snow and forecast nor’easter on the first day of Spring here on the east coast of the U.S.

The painting isn’t dated, but it carries the look of similar landsapes in Corot’s later career, with the early foliage painted as delicate brush marks that in places are barely visible against the gray of the sky.

You can see the naturalism, free brush work and attention to the effects of light that so inspired the Impressionists.

Happy Vernal Equinox!


Comments

3 responses to “Eye Candy for Today: Corot early Spring landscape”

  1. Richard Sica Avatar
    Richard Sica

    God help Alfred Robaut! 3000 Corot painting and 1500 fakes!
    I read that when a poor struggling artist would bring Corot a copy of one of Corot’s paintings he mad, Corot would take pity and… sign it.