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拍品專文
Corot went to the forest of Fontainebleau very soon after his return from his first trip to Italy. The newly invigorated artist was searching for a spot with a combination of natural elements that could provide a pictorial diversity that was comparable to the richness of the Roman Campagna. 'Fontainebleau was then a very popular spot among painters', wrote Moreau-Nélaton. 'It was like a branch office of Italy' (E. Moreau-Nélaton, Corot: Raconté par lui-même, Paris, 1924, vol. I, p. 29).
Corot traveled frequently to Fontainebleau between the years 1828 and 1835, when he left France for his second visit to Italy. In the years following his return from Italy, the young artist planned to exhibit his studies executed in the forest at Fontainebleau alongside his most recent Italian work. There were some twenty oil studies executed between 1828 and 1834 which demonstrate Corot's systematic investigation into the proper artistic descriptions of trees, rocks and sky. Fontainebleau - Route de Bas Breau is a typical example of these works. Executed on a small scale and painted en plein air, it is a most faithful depiction of the edge of a very dense forest. As in many of his works form this period, the artist enlivened the composition by the addition of a small figure on the edge of the forest. Corot 'very much likes figures animating his landscapes; he wants to have company in the woods, in the valleys, along rivers, to see animals and people rambling about the countryside, where he could not live absolutely alone' (T. Silvestre, Histoire des artisttes vivants, français et étrangers. Etudes après nature, Paris, 1853, p. 77).
Fontainebleau - Route de Bas-Breau displays many similarities with Corot's Italian studies from just a few years prior. The foreground is undefined, almost unfinished, allowing the artist to concentrate entirely on the rocks, tree trunks and foliage that dominate the composition. These intense studies of trees are used to good purpose in larger compositions from later in the decade such as Diana Surprised at her Bath, 1836, (fig.1), Hagar in the Wilderness, 1835, and Silenus, 1838, (fig. 2).
This work has been authenticated by Martin Dieterle.
(fig. 1) J.-B.-C. Corot, Diana Surprised at her Bath, Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Robert Lehman Collection, 1975 (1975.1.162). Photograph c. 1996 The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
(fig. 2) J.-B.-C. Corot, Silenus, Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Bequest of J. Jerome Hill. .
Corot traveled frequently to Fontainebleau between the years 1828 and 1835, when he left France for his second visit to Italy. In the years following his return from Italy, the young artist planned to exhibit his studies executed in the forest at Fontainebleau alongside his most recent Italian work. There were some twenty oil studies executed between 1828 and 1834 which demonstrate Corot's systematic investigation into the proper artistic descriptions of trees, rocks and sky. Fontainebleau - Route de Bas Breau is a typical example of these works. Executed on a small scale and painted en plein air, it is a most faithful depiction of the edge of a very dense forest. As in many of his works form this period, the artist enlivened the composition by the addition of a small figure on the edge of the forest. Corot 'very much likes figures animating his landscapes; he wants to have company in the woods, in the valleys, along rivers, to see animals and people rambling about the countryside, where he could not live absolutely alone' (T. Silvestre, Histoire des artisttes vivants, français et étrangers. Etudes après nature, Paris, 1853, p. 77).
Fontainebleau - Route de Bas-Breau displays many similarities with Corot's Italian studies from just a few years prior. The foreground is undefined, almost unfinished, allowing the artist to concentrate entirely on the rocks, tree trunks and foliage that dominate the composition. These intense studies of trees are used to good purpose in larger compositions from later in the decade such as Diana Surprised at her Bath, 1836, (fig.1), Hagar in the Wilderness, 1835, and Silenus, 1838, (fig. 2).
This work has been authenticated by Martin Dieterle.
(fig. 1) J.-B.-C. Corot, Diana Surprised at her Bath, Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Robert Lehman Collection, 1975 (1975.1.162). Photograph c. 1996 The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
(fig. 2) J.-B.-C. Corot, Silenus, Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Bequest of J. Jerome Hill. .