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Lot Essay
The pond at Ville d'Avray, where the Corot family had owned a property since 1817 and the artist lived most of his life, was one of Corot's favourite motifs throughout his career. Although sometimes providing a pretext for almost Elysean landscapes, notable for their silvery, water-infused light, here Corot reveals a more naturalistic emphasis on the qualities of earth, water and sky.
The present work has a crispness of tone which is unusual in the work of Corot, built on the contrasts between the glaring sun and the gentle qualities of a Northern European landscape. The warm tones, short shadows, and thicker brushwork in the lower left quadrant of the composition, reminiscent of Corot's Italian paintings, are offset by the cooler tones of the water and the feathery rendition of the foliage and soft Northern sky.
The present work has a crispness of tone which is unusual in the work of Corot, built on the contrasts between the glaring sun and the gentle qualities of a Northern European landscape. The warm tones, short shadows, and thicker brushwork in the lower left quadrant of the composition, reminiscent of Corot's Italian paintings, are offset by the cooler tones of the water and the feathery rendition of the foliage and soft Northern sky.