DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.63220#0030
COROT
went home ; then hurried to catch the coach for Chartres, where
he awaited events. There he produced many studies and sketches,
broadened his style, and painted the beautiful clear view of the
Cathedrals de Chartres.
Returning by way of Burgundy he stops at Beaune on the
banks of the Bouzoise and the Aigue, goes round the old half-
ruined ramparts, where one may see a fresh landscape at every
step—well-cultivated gardens, rocky districts, pools covered with
water-plants, wild herbage, and rows of trees—all contributing to
make the walk round the old Roman city one of the loveliest to
be found in France. He visits the almshouses, a gothic building,
the collection of paintings by primitive Flemish masters, and the
art museum. In his journey from Beaune to Dijon he keeps to
the vine-stocked hillside. What delights him most at Dijon is not
the superb park, nor the avenue leading thereto, nor the ducal
palace, nor the parliament house, nor the churches, but once more
the walk, now demolished, which followed the line of ancient
stone-work—a walk lined by trees of all sorts, entangled with ivy
and bindweed and climbing plants innumerable, whose roots, run-
ning through the interstices of the masonry, throw ofF shoots right
as far as the roadway.
When Corot saw Paris again Louis Philippe occupied the place
of Charles X. ; affairs were settling down again, and a romantic gust
was stirring literature and art. In 1831 there was an exhibition
at the Louvre. Corot sent four canvases : La Foret de Fontainebleau,
two Vues d'Italic, and a Consent sur les bords de !Adriatique. These
works attracted no notice, save on the part of Jal, who paused to
remark that “ the colour is too uniform, the touch lacks accent,
and the painting is flat and heavy.”
To the Salon of 1833 Corot sent his Madeleine en priere, which won
him a medal. The critics complained that this picture was cut in
two by the horizon being placed too low. But perhaps it were
better to accept the opinion of Philippe Burty, who sees in this
picture the breaking away from historical landscape and the apogee
of Corot’s first manner.
Even in those days there were landscape reformers. At their
head were Paul Huet, Rousseau, and Dupre. Paul Huet, inspired
by Constable, supplied the impulse. Huet and Constable both had
an influence over Corot. Constable, not properly appreciated in
England, had won a gold medal at the Paris Salon of 1824, and
had conquered the French public to such an extent that the academic
■critics became uneasy. They protested against the infatuation, and
c xii
went home ; then hurried to catch the coach for Chartres, where
he awaited events. There he produced many studies and sketches,
broadened his style, and painted the beautiful clear view of the
Cathedrals de Chartres.
Returning by way of Burgundy he stops at Beaune on the
banks of the Bouzoise and the Aigue, goes round the old half-
ruined ramparts, where one may see a fresh landscape at every
step—well-cultivated gardens, rocky districts, pools covered with
water-plants, wild herbage, and rows of trees—all contributing to
make the walk round the old Roman city one of the loveliest to
be found in France. He visits the almshouses, a gothic building,
the collection of paintings by primitive Flemish masters, and the
art museum. In his journey from Beaune to Dijon he keeps to
the vine-stocked hillside. What delights him most at Dijon is not
the superb park, nor the avenue leading thereto, nor the ducal
palace, nor the parliament house, nor the churches, but once more
the walk, now demolished, which followed the line of ancient
stone-work—a walk lined by trees of all sorts, entangled with ivy
and bindweed and climbing plants innumerable, whose roots, run-
ning through the interstices of the masonry, throw ofF shoots right
as far as the roadway.
When Corot saw Paris again Louis Philippe occupied the place
of Charles X. ; affairs were settling down again, and a romantic gust
was stirring literature and art. In 1831 there was an exhibition
at the Louvre. Corot sent four canvases : La Foret de Fontainebleau,
two Vues d'Italic, and a Consent sur les bords de !Adriatique. These
works attracted no notice, save on the part of Jal, who paused to
remark that “ the colour is too uniform, the touch lacks accent,
and the painting is flat and heavy.”
To the Salon of 1833 Corot sent his Madeleine en priere, which won
him a medal. The critics complained that this picture was cut in
two by the horizon being placed too low. But perhaps it were
better to accept the opinion of Philippe Burty, who sees in this
picture the breaking away from historical landscape and the apogee
of Corot’s first manner.
Even in those days there were landscape reformers. At their
head were Paul Huet, Rousseau, and Dupre. Paul Huet, inspired
by Constable, supplied the impulse. Huet and Constable both had
an influence over Corot. Constable, not properly appreciated in
England, had won a gold medal at the Paris Salon of 1824, and
had conquered the French public to such an extent that the academic
■critics became uneasy. They protested against the infatuation, and
c xii