The Repose

1860, reworked c. 1865/1870

Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot

Artist, French, 1796 - 1875

A nude, young woman with smooth, pale skin reclines against a grassy mound in a sunny field in this long, horizontal landscape painting. The scene is painted with blended strokes, giving it a soft look. The woman is close to us near the lower center of the painting. With her head to our left, she leans against the low mound supporting her back. Her body is angled mostly away from us, but she turns to look back at us over her shoulder. Her right arm is draped casually over her right hip. The fingers of that hand brush the rim of an iron-gray dish on the ground beside her. Her left foot is tucked under her extended right leg. She has large brown eyes under thick brows, a slender nose, and red lips set in her round face. Her dark brown hair is swept up and gathered at the back of her head. A leafy wreath or headdress is suggested by daubs of sage and avocado green, and a long stroke of brown paint could be a ribbon hanging down her back. She lies on a caramel-brown cloth or pelt dotted with black and streaked with white at the edges. The olive-green field around her is smoothly painted and speckled with dots of white, gold, and light blue, suggesting small flowers. Four shadowy figures cluster in the distance on the right side. Two hold up a gleaming object, perhaps a cup or jug. The scene is framed along the right edge of the painting by a delicate, leafy tree curving up and over from a rocky outcropping. The landscape extends far into the distance where it meets a line of low hills at the horizon, which comes halfway up the canvas. The pale blue sky above is filled with long bands of smoke-gray and white clouds. The artist signed and dated the work with orange letters in the lower left, “Corot 1860.”

Media Options

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On View

West Building Main Floor, Gallery 90

Artwork overview

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Th. Bascle, Paris, by 1878, but probably before 1872;[1] (his estate sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 12-14 April 1883, no. 11, as Bacchante couché); Lucas; sold 25 February 1897 to (Durand-Ruel, Paris); sold 1897 to William Andrews Clark [1839-1925], New York; bequest 1926 to the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington; acquired 2014 by the National Gallery of Art.
[1] Bascle lent the painting to an exhibition in Paris in 1878.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1861

  • Salon, Paris, 1861, no. 698.

1878

  • Exposition Retrospective de Tableaux et Dessins, Durand-Ruel, Paris, 1878, no. 113, as Bacchante au repos.

1956

  • Visionaries and Dreamers, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 7 April - 27 May 1956, no. 4, repro., as Bacchante with Tambourine.

1959

  • Loan Exhibition. Masterpieces of the Corcoran Gallery of Art: A Benefit Exhibition in Honor of the Gallery's Centenary, Wildenstein, New York, 1959, unnumbered catalogue, repro., as Bacchante with Tambourine.

1960

  • Corot, 1796-1875: An Exhibition of His Paintings and Graphic Works, Art Institute of Chicago, 1960, no. 89.

1969

  • Corot: A Loan Exhibition for the Benefit of the Citizens' Committee for Children of New York, Inc., Wildenstein Gallery, New York, 1969, no. 46, repro.

1983

  • La Vie Moderne: Nineteenth Century French Art from the Corcoran Gallery, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington; Columbus Museum of Arts and Sciences, Georgia; Mary and Leigh Block Gallery, Northwestern University, Evanston; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Tampa Museum; Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha; Akron Art Museum, 1983-1985, no. 26, repro., as Bacchante with Tambourine.

1996

  • Corot, Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Paris; National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1996-1997, no. 117, repro.

2001

  • Antiquities to Impressionism: The William A. Clark Collection, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 2001-2002, unnumbered catalogue, repro.

2005

  • Corot. Naturaleza, Emoción, Recuerdo (Corot. Nature, Emotion, Souvenir), Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid; Palazzo dei Diamanti, Ferrara, 2005-2006, no. 55, repro.

2012

  • Camille Corot: Natur und Traum, Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe, 2012-2013, no. 109, repro.

2018

  • Corot: Women, Musee Marmottan Monet, Paris; National Gallery of Art, Washington, 2018, no. 22, repro.

2019

  • Renoir: The Body, The Senses, Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown; Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, 2019-2020, no. 8, repro.

Bibliography

1905

  • Robaut, Alfred, and Etienne Moreau-Nélaton. L'Oeuvre de Corot. Catalogue raisonné et illustré. 5 vols. Paris, 1905: 3:12-13, no. 1277, repro.

1925

  • Carroll, Dana H. Catalogue of Objects of Fine Art and Other Properties at the Home of William Andrews Clark, 962 Fifth Avenue. Part I. Unpublished manuscript, n.d. (1925): 148, no. 108.

1932

  • Corcoran Gallery of Art. Illustrated Handbook of the W.A. Clark Collection. Washington, 1932: repro. 28, 40, no. 2041, as La Bacchante au Tambourin.

Inscriptions

lower left: Corot 1860.

Wikidata ID

Q20188423

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