DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.63220#0038
COROT
“ Ville d’Avray, May 20, 1847.
Sir,
I have received your kind letter wherein you announce your in-
tention of having something by me. I am greatly flattered by this dis-
tinction on your part, and will hasten to send you on a small canvas,
according to your instructions. I should like to know whether you
would prefer to have a study from Nature or a composition. The
price of these would be 200 francs. The studies measure from 12 to
15 inches.
Awaiting your reply, Sir, I have the honour to be,
Yours faithfully,
C. Corot fils.”
It was about this sale that Corot said to one of his friends : “ At
last I’ve sold a picture, and I’m sorry for it. It will be missing from
the complete collection.” The artist at the age of 50 signed himself
“ Corot fils ” for the reason that during nearly the whole year he
lived with his parents at Ville d’Avray, and because the purchaser’s
letter had been opened by Corot pere, who thought it must have
come from some artist-friend of his son’s, so utterly improbable
seemed the existence of a genuine amateur buyer. In this same year
the old man died, never having realised the fame or the talent of
his son.
Eighteen-forty-eight was an eventful year, quite apart from the
revolution of February. Corot, who hitherto had had some of
his pictures rejected each year, sent nine canvases this time,
and all were accepted. What had happened ? Simply this : the
judges were elected by the artists by ballot. Corot was one of those
chosen, being ninth on the list, with 353 votes out of 801. Among
his pictures were : Site d Italic, Interieur de Bvis, Vue de Ville d''Away,
Une Matinee, Crepuscule, Un Soir, Bffet du Matin, and Un Matin. The
Site d*Italic, which was purchased by the State, is in the Douai
Gallery. Theophile Gautier wrote a beautiful passage in celebration
of the freshness of these mists of morning, this Nature half-awake.
“ Landscapists,” said he, “ do not usually rise so early as that.” Corot
indeed had only to go out at dawn, from the house which his family
had owned since 1817, to be present at Nature’s awakening over the
pool of Ville d’Avray, the woods of Garchcs and Marnes and
Villeneuve 1’Etang and Saint-Cloud. The scene is always lovely
and full of life. From the other side of the water, on the edge of
which stands a bust of Corot on a pedestal of stone—the work of
Geoffrey Dechaume—the giant trees embrace at their tops and mix
c xviii
“ Ville d’Avray, May 20, 1847.
Sir,
I have received your kind letter wherein you announce your in-
tention of having something by me. I am greatly flattered by this dis-
tinction on your part, and will hasten to send you on a small canvas,
according to your instructions. I should like to know whether you
would prefer to have a study from Nature or a composition. The
price of these would be 200 francs. The studies measure from 12 to
15 inches.
Awaiting your reply, Sir, I have the honour to be,
Yours faithfully,
C. Corot fils.”
It was about this sale that Corot said to one of his friends : “ At
last I’ve sold a picture, and I’m sorry for it. It will be missing from
the complete collection.” The artist at the age of 50 signed himself
“ Corot fils ” for the reason that during nearly the whole year he
lived with his parents at Ville d’Avray, and because the purchaser’s
letter had been opened by Corot pere, who thought it must have
come from some artist-friend of his son’s, so utterly improbable
seemed the existence of a genuine amateur buyer. In this same year
the old man died, never having realised the fame or the talent of
his son.
Eighteen-forty-eight was an eventful year, quite apart from the
revolution of February. Corot, who hitherto had had some of
his pictures rejected each year, sent nine canvases this time,
and all were accepted. What had happened ? Simply this : the
judges were elected by the artists by ballot. Corot was one of those
chosen, being ninth on the list, with 353 votes out of 801. Among
his pictures were : Site d Italic, Interieur de Bvis, Vue de Ville d''Away,
Une Matinee, Crepuscule, Un Soir, Bffet du Matin, and Un Matin. The
Site d*Italic, which was purchased by the State, is in the Douai
Gallery. Theophile Gautier wrote a beautiful passage in celebration
of the freshness of these mists of morning, this Nature half-awake.
“ Landscapists,” said he, “ do not usually rise so early as that.” Corot
indeed had only to go out at dawn, from the house which his family
had owned since 1817, to be present at Nature’s awakening over the
pool of Ville d’Avray, the woods of Garchcs and Marnes and
Villeneuve 1’Etang and Saint-Cloud. The scene is always lovely
and full of life. From the other side of the water, on the edge of
which stands a bust of Corot on a pedestal of stone—the work of
Geoffrey Dechaume—the giant trees embrace at their tops and mix
c xviii