DOI Heft:
No. 117 (November, 1906)
DOI Artikel:Halton, Ernest G.: The collection of Mr. Alexander Young, 1, The Corots
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.28250#0018
The Alexander Young Collection—/.
“ THE GLADE ”
BY J. B. C. COROT
tending over thirty or forty years what was without
doubt the finest and most representative group of
works by that master. With these pictures lies the
chief claim of his collection to distinction, but
admirably, if less extensively, represented are
Millet, Rousseau, Diaz, Dupre and Troyon. Of
works by Daubigny he had no less than fifty, and
in no other gallery could that artist be seen to
anything like the same advantage.
Mr. Young did not, however, confine his attention
to the men of Fontainebleau, but he also numbered
amongst his pictures some
fine examples of the modern
Dutchmen, including Josef
Israels, James Maris,
William Maris, Anton
Mauve, Weissenbruch, and
certain French and English
painters of to-day who have
more or less come under
the influence of the French
Romantic movement. We
propose to deal with these
pictures in another article.
Mr. Young was not satis-
fied with any but the veiy
best of each artist, with the
result that a high level of
excellence was a prominent
feature of the collection.
In spite of the fact that he
possessed about seven
hundred works it may truly
be said that it was their
The Corots
quality rather than their number
that gave them notability, In this
respect his Corots, of which he
had over sixty, were unique. With
few exceptions they were of the
finest quality—indeed it is generally
admitted that in The Bent Tree,
the large Le Lac, Evening Glow, La
Prairie, Les Baigneuses and one or
two others, he possessed works
which Corot never surpassed and
seldom equalled.
It is our intention to discuss in
the present article only the Corots,
and we may say at once that the
collection contained no example of
that master’s work which belongs
entirely to his earlier years. It was
only the pictures produced in the
later and more mature period, from
1850 onwards, that interested Mr. Young; but in
saying this we would like to draw attention to an
interesting feature of Corot’s work, which is some-
times forgotten by those who are disposed to divide
his artistic life into set periods. It is well known
that Corot was in the habit of beginning a picture
and then leaving it, sometimes for several years,
before he finished it or even carried it any further.
In 1855 he wrote to Dutilleux, “I have a lot to
do, and so many old pictures to finish in order to
get them out of the way as the studio is rather too
4
“ THE GLADE ”
BY J. B. C. COROT
tending over thirty or forty years what was without
doubt the finest and most representative group of
works by that master. With these pictures lies the
chief claim of his collection to distinction, but
admirably, if less extensively, represented are
Millet, Rousseau, Diaz, Dupre and Troyon. Of
works by Daubigny he had no less than fifty, and
in no other gallery could that artist be seen to
anything like the same advantage.
Mr. Young did not, however, confine his attention
to the men of Fontainebleau, but he also numbered
amongst his pictures some
fine examples of the modern
Dutchmen, including Josef
Israels, James Maris,
William Maris, Anton
Mauve, Weissenbruch, and
certain French and English
painters of to-day who have
more or less come under
the influence of the French
Romantic movement. We
propose to deal with these
pictures in another article.
Mr. Young was not satis-
fied with any but the veiy
best of each artist, with the
result that a high level of
excellence was a prominent
feature of the collection.
In spite of the fact that he
possessed about seven
hundred works it may truly
be said that it was their
The Corots
quality rather than their number
that gave them notability, In this
respect his Corots, of which he
had over sixty, were unique. With
few exceptions they were of the
finest quality—indeed it is generally
admitted that in The Bent Tree,
the large Le Lac, Evening Glow, La
Prairie, Les Baigneuses and one or
two others, he possessed works
which Corot never surpassed and
seldom equalled.
It is our intention to discuss in
the present article only the Corots,
and we may say at once that the
collection contained no example of
that master’s work which belongs
entirely to his earlier years. It was
only the pictures produced in the
later and more mature period, from
1850 onwards, that interested Mr. Young; but in
saying this we would like to draw attention to an
interesting feature of Corot’s work, which is some-
times forgotten by those who are disposed to divide
his artistic life into set periods. It is well known
that Corot was in the habit of beginning a picture
and then leaving it, sometimes for several years,
before he finished it or even carried it any further.
In 1855 he wrote to Dutilleux, “I have a lot to
do, and so many old pictures to finish in order to
get them out of the way as the studio is rather too
4