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Lot Essay
Corot traveled throughout northern France and Holland in 1854 in the company of his friend Constant Dutileux, and these journeys may have been the inspiration for this souvenir of a northern marais, or fenland.
It would be fallacy to try to situate Corot's landscapes too precisely and would only serve to misinterpret the artist's poetic vision. These wonderfully atmospheric landscapes represent the artist's meditations on nature and were never meant to portray accurate depictions rooted in time and place. Always lyrical in feel, they are reflections loosely analogous to French Romantic poetry, such as that by Lamartine or Musset.
Théodore Duret best defined a key quality of Corot's art in the 1860s when he noted that the painter fixed on canvas not only the visual spectacle before him, but also 'the exact sensation of something he experienced' (Théodore Duret, Les peintres français en 1867, Paris, 1867, p. 27). Théodore de Banville expressed this observation perfectly when he wrote, 'This is not a landscape painter, this is the very poet of landscape... who breathes the sadness and joys of nature... The bond, the great bond that makes us the brothers of brooks and trees, he sees it; his figures, as poetic as his forests, are not strangers to the woodlands that surrounds them. He knows, more than anyone, he has discovered all the customs of boughs and leaves; and now that he is sure that he will not distort their inner life, he can dispense with all servile imitation' (Théodore de Banville, 'Le Salon de 1861', Revue fantastique 2, 1 July 1861, pp. 235-236).
La mare aux vaches à la tombée du jour is an exquisite example of the master at the height of his powers. Corot captures perfectly the moment of crepuscule, when the land is bathed in half-light and the sky still retains the beauty, light and color of the already set sun. The sky is perfectly reflected in the light of the pond, and the cows appear as almost shadows at its edge. There is a serenity that pervades the composition and the viewer is invited into a world colored only by the light at the end of day.
We are grateful to Martin Dieterle and Claire Lebeau for confirming the authenticity of this painting.
It would be fallacy to try to situate Corot's landscapes too precisely and would only serve to misinterpret the artist's poetic vision. These wonderfully atmospheric landscapes represent the artist's meditations on nature and were never meant to portray accurate depictions rooted in time and place. Always lyrical in feel, they are reflections loosely analogous to French Romantic poetry, such as that by Lamartine or Musset.
Théodore Duret best defined a key quality of Corot's art in the 1860s when he noted that the painter fixed on canvas not only the visual spectacle before him, but also 'the exact sensation of something he experienced' (Théodore Duret, Les peintres français en 1867, Paris, 1867, p. 27). Théodore de Banville expressed this observation perfectly when he wrote, 'This is not a landscape painter, this is the very poet of landscape... who breathes the sadness and joys of nature... The bond, the great bond that makes us the brothers of brooks and trees, he sees it; his figures, as poetic as his forests, are not strangers to the woodlands that surrounds them. He knows, more than anyone, he has discovered all the customs of boughs and leaves; and now that he is sure that he will not distort their inner life, he can dispense with all servile imitation' (Théodore de Banville, 'Le Salon de 1861', Revue fantastique 2, 1 July 1861, pp. 235-236).
La mare aux vaches à la tombée du jour is an exquisite example of the master at the height of his powers. Corot captures perfectly the moment of crepuscule, when the land is bathed in half-light and the sky still retains the beauty, light and color of the already set sun. The sky is perfectly reflected in the light of the pond, and the cows appear as almost shadows at its edge. There is a serenity that pervades the composition and the viewer is invited into a world colored only by the light at the end of day.
We are grateful to Martin Dieterle and Claire Lebeau for confirming the authenticity of this painting.