Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot (French, 1796-1875)
Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot (French, 1796-1875)

Les Contrebandiers

Details
Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot (French, 1796-1875)
Les Contrebandiers
signed 'Corot' (lower right)
oil on canvas
33¾ x 39¾ in. (85.6 x 101 cm.)
Painted circa 1871-72
Provenance
Faure Sale; Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 7 June 1873, lot 5.
with Galerie Durand-Ruel, Paris, 1873.
with Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 21 February 1892.
with Boussod, Valadon et. Cie., Paris.
H. J. van Wisselingh, La Haye, 14 September 1897.
Van Eghen, Amsterdam, 1897.
with Arnold et Tripp, 18 October 1907.
Robert von Mendelssohn, Berlin, 5 March 1908.
E. & F. von Mendelssohn Trust; Parke-Bernet, New York, 13 February 1958, lot 84.
Anonymous sale, Sotheby's, New York, 24 February 1988, lot 21.
Acquired at the above sale by the present owner.
Literature
A. Robaut, L'Oeuvre de Corot, catalogue raisonné illustré, Paris, 1965, vol.III, pp. 356-7, no. 2307 (illustrated).
Exhibited
Paris, Palais Gallieria, Exposition organisée au profit du
monument du centanaire de Corot,
1895, no. 21.
Munich, Moderne Gallerie Thannhauser, 1927.

Lot Essay

'I am fine', Corot wrote to a friend in 1872. 'I'm working as if I were seventy' (Corot, letter to Jean Rochenoir, August 29, 1871, quoted in Robaut, 1905, vol. 4, p. 345, no. 211). During the last years of his life, public affection for Corot had deepened. His popularity had not waned and collectors and dealers alike waited impatiently for his paintings to dry so they could be released from the artist's studio. At the Salon he continued to be a success, although now that he was either on the jury or hors concours, his work was automatically accepted.

Corot had become the grand old man of French painting. Young painters such as Berthe Morisot sought out his instruction and approval. Camille Pissarro described himself in his entries to the Salon as 'éleve de Corot' in an effort to win more respect from his contemporaries and the judges, and many others did the same. In a strange twist, Corot suddenly was adopted and admired by the critics of the New Painting: Emile Zola, Theodore Duret and Edmond Duranty all considered Corot to be the progenitor of Impressionism. At one time or another, Claude Monet, Alfred Sisley and Pierre-August Renoir all experimented with Corot's method or technique.

Les Contrabandiers comes from the twilight of Corot's career; however, the master clearly demonstrates in this painting that even in the closing years of his life, he is still an extraordinary artist. Few artists could evoke twilight as Corot, and in Les Contrabandiers the artist shows the world that he is still the master of light, shadow and the sheer poetry of the landscape. As in many of his compositions, Corot emphasizes the majesty of the landscape by interjecting a lone figure, expertly inserted into the middle ground. The presence of this figure on horseback serves two purposes: it skillfully divides the foreground from the background by creating a concrete middle ground, and it lends an aura of serenity and peace to the landscape. By lowering the heads of both the horse and the rider, Corot has lent an aura of serenity and quietude to an image of motion. The stillness of the landscape in the half-light of dusk is echoed in the unhurried, yet furtive motion of the single traveler.

This work has been authenticated by Martin Dieterle.

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