Camille Corot - a transitional period in painting (from old to new)

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Jean Baptiste Camille Corot (1796-1875) - French painter, very subtle colorist. In his romantic paintings, shades of tone are used within the same color. This allowed him to achieve subtle color transitions, showing the richness of color.

Portrait of a Woman with a Pearl (1868–1870), Louvre

This is a chamber work, for which Camille Corot took as a model "Portrait of Mona Lisa" and the work of Jan Vermeer. His model Berta Goldschmidt is wearing one of the Italian dresses that Corot brought back from his travels. She does not attract either the brightness of colors or the luxury of the clothes themselves. Nothing distracts the eye from her face. Thus, the artist tries to build contact with the viewer. The lightest veil covers the forehead of a young woman who looks seriously from the portrait. Her beautiful lips do not even smile, she is so immersed in the contemplation of the one who stops in front of the picture. This is Leonardo's move. But the great Italian calculated his "Mona Lisa" according to all the laws of mathematics.

Camille Corot failed to achieve, or maybe did not try, multiple repetitions of circles, as inportrait of Leonardo. There are only two circles here - the head of a young woman and her folded hands. Together it sets a certain rhythm. Like Leonardo, the model has a simple hairstyle - her hair falls freely over her shoulders, from there is a veil, and an almost complete absence of jewelry. There is no landscape. The young woman emerges as a bright ray from an indefinite misty background against which (again we return to Leonardo's work) the shadows thicken at the bottom of the picture. The costume itself and the range of colors lead us to Raphael, and the used pearls make us remember Vermeer. And yet the portrait is poetic, though not independent.

Memories of Mortfontaine

This is a masterpiece that Camille Corot painted in oil on canvas in 1864. A young woman with children enjoys the tranquility of the lake. This is the most poetic work of an experienced master. His picture bears the imprint of an idealized world and at the same time does not lead away from reality. The realistic inclinations of the young Corot combined with romantic elements and bridged the gap between realism and the emerging Impressionist movement. In this landscape with a lake, it is not the details that attract, but the play of light and a muted palette, much less bright than those of the Impressionists. Fuzzy, blurry details bring to mind the old photographs that the artist collected.

Mortfontaine is a small village in the Oise department in northern France. Earlier, in the 50s, Camille Corot visited these places to study the reflections of light in water. And in "Memoirs" he is notreproduces the landscape in detail, namely, he recalls this environment full of poetry and serenity, summarizing his impressions. As the artist himself said, “Beauty in art is bathed in the truth that I receive from nature. I always strive to depict a certain place without losing the original freshness of the feeling that took possession of me. An aura of calm, a hazy atmosphere that covers the entire canvas, suggests that we are facing an early morning. The greenish-brownish tonality of the landscape complements the colors of the sky and water, giving the landscape a certain mystery and a special silence in which every rustle is heard and which you yourself can be fascinated to listen to. On the left is a girl with two children, whose figures stand out especially clearly against the background of a drying tree, on which there are almost no living branches left. At this point in the picture, a technique characteristic of Corot was applied - one bright spot appeared.

"The Bridge at Monte" (1868-1870)

Jean Baptiste Camille Corot travels to his native places and transfers many of them to the canvas. During his life, the artist wrote about three thousand works.

The Bridge at Monte is one of his most famous landscapes. To draw this scenery, Koro stopped on an island, from which the strict geometric lines of the bridge were clearly visible, which contrast with the crooked tree trunks of the foreground.

"Portrait of a Lady in Blue" (1874)

This late work by Corot is on display at the Louvre. On the canvas, standing with his back and half-turned to the viewer, in a relaxed posethere is a model with bare hands.

Like a blue hyacinth, it stands out against a yellowish background. Nothing distracts the viewer's attention from her. Degas valued Corot's portraits more than landscapes. Van Gogh, Cezanne, Gauguin, and later Picasso were also influenced by his portraits.

Jean Baptiste Camille Corot: works

This artist appeared at a time when classical academicism was already leaving, and a new direction in art had not yet been formed. Therefore, his works are a transitional stage in the history of painting, which in no way detracts from the work of this painter. He is looking for new ways. This is especially evident, because he works mainly in the open air and builds a color scheme within the same color, which was evident from the reproductions presented above. Its subtle semitones (valers) connect the entire surrounding space. It is on them that the unity of the world and man is built. Description of the paintings by Camille Corot is given in the test article.