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#0024
The Alexander Young Collection—/. The Corots
painting of the thick mass of trees is admirable.
It was one of Corot’s favourite maxims that trees
should look as if the birds could fly through them,
and even his heaviest masses of foliage give that
impression. The painting of the sky, with its
delicate hues of pale gold, is exquisite, as is the
distant scene bathed in the evening light.
The largest and perhaps the most important
Corot in the collection is the imposing Le Lac
(p. 19), well known from the etching by Chauvel.
This picture was exhibited at the Corot Exhibition
held at the Palais Galliera, in Paris, in 1895, and
was there hung in the place of honour, attracting
great public attention. Mr. Young acquired it
shortly after the close of the exhibition. Fine in
line and composition, the general tone is of rich
mellow brown and green, intensified by the
silvery gleam of the water. The painting of the
little pool in the foreground, in which are re-
flected many beautiful colours, the delicate light
on the horizon, the characteristic treatment of the
trees —- these are a few of the many points to
be noticed in this striking canvas. This picture,
with its rather remote foreground, its sense of
distance from the onlooker, well illustrates Corot’s
frequent practice of omitting that part of the land-
scape which lies immediately before him, and
reminds us of Mr, George Moore’s anecdote as
related in his “Modern Painting.” “I only saw
Corot once,” he says; “ it was in some woods near
Paris, where I had gone to paint, and I came
across the old gentleman unexpectedly, seated in
front of his easel in a pleasant glade. After
admiring his work I ventured to say: ‘ Master,
what you are doing is lovely, but I cannot find
your composition in the landscape before us.’
He said: ‘My foreground is a long way ahead,’
and sure enough, nearly two hundred yards away,
his picture rose out of the dimness of the dell,
stretching a little beyond the vista into the meadow.”
Another important work is La Prairie (p. 5),
painted in a lighter key, but revealing rare harmony
“VIEW, NEAR A FARM”
BY J. B. C. COROT
IO
painting of the thick mass of trees is admirable.
It was one of Corot’s favourite maxims that trees
should look as if the birds could fly through them,
and even his heaviest masses of foliage give that
impression. The painting of the sky, with its
delicate hues of pale gold, is exquisite, as is the
distant scene bathed in the evening light.
The largest and perhaps the most important
Corot in the collection is the imposing Le Lac
(p. 19), well known from the etching by Chauvel.
This picture was exhibited at the Corot Exhibition
held at the Palais Galliera, in Paris, in 1895, and
was there hung in the place of honour, attracting
great public attention. Mr. Young acquired it
shortly after the close of the exhibition. Fine in
line and composition, the general tone is of rich
mellow brown and green, intensified by the
silvery gleam of the water. The painting of the
little pool in the foreground, in which are re-
flected many beautiful colours, the delicate light
on the horizon, the characteristic treatment of the
trees —- these are a few of the many points to
be noticed in this striking canvas. This picture,
with its rather remote foreground, its sense of
distance from the onlooker, well illustrates Corot’s
frequent practice of omitting that part of the land-
scape which lies immediately before him, and
reminds us of Mr, George Moore’s anecdote as
related in his “Modern Painting.” “I only saw
Corot once,” he says; “ it was in some woods near
Paris, where I had gone to paint, and I came
across the old gentleman unexpectedly, seated in
front of his easel in a pleasant glade. After
admiring his work I ventured to say: ‘ Master,
what you are doing is lovely, but I cannot find
your composition in the landscape before us.’
He said: ‘My foreground is a long way ahead,’
and sure enough, nearly two hundred yards away,
his picture rose out of the dimness of the dell,
stretching a little beyond the vista into the meadow.”
Another important work is La Prairie (p. 5),
painted in a lighter key, but revealing rare harmony
“VIEW, NEAR A FARM”
BY J. B. C. COROT
IO