NARRATOR:
Camille Corot was renowned for his lyricism. He painted this shady, undulating landscape in his studio in Paris, using Italian motifs derived from the great French landscape painter Claude Lorrain.
On the banks of a river, a shepherd watches over his flock. On the right, beneath a tree, a traveler rests beside the quiet waters. Beyond rises the monumental church in the town of Ariccia. Early morning light streams in from the distant horizon, while subdued colors and the harmonious balance of water and land create a mood of tranquility and ease.
Corot was one of the greatest French landscape painters of the 19th century. The son of a merchant, he worked in textile shops until 1822. Then he began to study painting and made his first trip to Italy. He returned there often, inspired by the vestiges of antiquity in the Roman countryside.
Corot painted primarily in France, however. He especially liked the wooded area around Fountainbleau near Paris, favored by the informal group of landscape painters known as the Barbizon school. Like them, he made sketches directly from nature, sometimes creating entire compositions outdoors. Loosely painted and full of hazy atmosphere, his later pictures were particularly popular with the French Impressionists.
Site in Italy
1839
Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot (French, 1796-1875)
On View
Corot lived in Italy from 1825 to 1828 but painted this picture over a decade later, back in Paris, from memory and imagination. He turned for inspiration (and competition) to the 17th-century master Claude Lorrain, father of French classical landscape, who had spent his career in Italy. With its goatherd and flock, its trees, water and distant citadel all bathed in golden light, this picture is among the most compelling products of Corot’s engagement with Claude. He likely exhibited it at the Paris Salon of 1839, and although his own style took a more distinctive, modern turn in the 1840s, he remained true to the old master’s methods.
Details
- Artist Name: Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot (French, 1796-1875)
- Title: Site in Italy
- Date: 1839
- Medium: Oil on canvas
- Dimensions: 21 1/4 x 32 in. (54 x 81.3 cm)
- Credit Line: The Norton Simon Foundation, Gift of Donald Ellis Simon
- Accession Number: F.1971.1.2.P
- Copyright: © The Norton Simon Foundation
Object Information
Madame Jessé, Versailles, 1876.
Louis Sarlin, Paris, by 1910 (sale, Paris, Galerie Georges Petit, 2 March 1918, lot 8, ill., as Lac d'Italie, signed lower right; sale did not take place, sold en bloc to;)
Wilhelm Hansen, Copenhagen;
[Georges Bernheim et Cie, Paris, by 1928].
?[Paul Rosenberg, Paris].
Alphonse Kann (1868-1948), Saint Germain-en-Laye.
[Arthur Tooth & Sons, London, sold May, 1963 to;]
[E.V. Thaw & Co., New York, sold 8 July 1963 to;]
Donald Ellis Simon, Los Angeles, gift 1971 to;
The Norton Simon Foundation.
Louis Sarlin, Paris, by 1910 (sale, Paris, Galerie Georges Petit, 2 March 1918, lot 8, ill., as Lac d'Italie, signed lower right; sale did not take place, sold en bloc to;)
Wilhelm Hansen, Copenhagen;
[Georges Bernheim et Cie, Paris, by 1928].
?[Paul Rosenberg, Paris].
Alphonse Kann (1868-1948), Saint Germain-en-Laye.
[Arthur Tooth & Sons, London, sold May, 1963 to;]
[E.V. Thaw & Co., New York, sold 8 July 1963 to;]
Donald Ellis Simon, Los Angeles, gift 1971 to;
The Norton Simon Foundation.
Salon
- Paris, 1839 to
Exposition de chefs d'oeuvre de l'école française: Vingt peintres du XIXe siècle. . . au profit de l'assistance aux Militaires Coloniaux et Légionnaires
- Paris, Galerie Georges Petit, 1910-05-02 to 1910-05-31
[on loan]
- Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1970-07 to 1971-05
[on loan]
- Minneapolis, Minneapolis Institute of Arts, 1971-05-21 to 1972-09-28
Exposition d'oeuvres de Camille J.-B. Corot (1796-1875): Figures et paysages d'Italie au profit de la Bibliothèque d'art & d'archéologie de l'Université de Paris
- Paris, Paul Rosenberg, 1928-06-06 to 1928-07-07
Images of the Landscape, Barbizon and Impressionist Paintings from the Permanent Collection
- Norton Simon Museum, 1987-07-02 to 1989-10-29
Special Exhibition for the College Art Association (Mr. and Mrs. Norton Simon Collection)
- Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1965-01-18 to 1965-04-16
Reinstallation of South Wing
- Norton Simon Museum, 1993-10-07 to 1995-08-13
Three Centuries of French Art: Selections from The Norton Simon, Inc. Museum of Art and The Norton Simon Foundation_1
- California Palace of the Legion of Honor, 1973-05-03 to 1976-06-15
- Robaut, Alfred, L'Oeuvre de Corot, 1905, no. 371 p. 137
- Morse, John D., Old Master Paintings in North America, 1979, p. 62
- Masterpieces from the Norton Simon Museum, 1989, p. 116
- Brettell, Richard R. and Stephen F. Eisenman, Nineteenth-Century Art in the Norton Simon Museum, volume 1, 2006,
- Campbell, Sara, Collector Without Walls: Norton Simon and His Hunt for the Best, 2010, cat. 150 p. 263
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