Forest of Fontainebleau

1834

Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot

Artist, French, 1796 - 1875

A young woman reclines and reads a book near a stream that winds through a wooded landscape in this horizontal painting. Painted with rich pine green, trees tower along the riverbanks and fill most of the painting. The olive-colored water seems to have cut straight down over time, creating high banks painted with tones of caramel and honey brown. Steel and slate-gray boulders are scattered in intervals near the river. Deep in the hazy blue distance, mountains line the horizon, which comes halfway up the composition. In the lower left corner of the painting, close to the river, the woman lies on her stomach as she props herself up on her elbows to read. She has pale white skin and her long, dark hair falls over her shoulders. Her white shirt hangs low over her shoulders, and her rose-pink skirt falls just short of her bare feet.

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The impressionist style developed as a method to render more accurately the appearance of the natural world, and was principally a technique for landscape painting. Corot, whose career began in the late 1820s when the academic tradition of landscape painting was being revived, was one of the most prolific and influential exponents of the genre. Forest of Fontainebleau, painted for and exhibited at the Salon of 1834, is a historic landscape, the hybrid category devised to elevate the status of landscape painting by combining with it the subjects of history painting. Although Corot's principal subject here was landscape, contemporaries readily identified the reclining woman in the foreground as Mary Magdalene. Her unbound hair and peasant costume, the deer in the background, and her solitude in the wilderness are traditional attributes of the saint.

In accord with academic training, Forest of Fontainebleau was created in the studio on the basis of sketches and studies that had been painted outdoors. The artist's humble attitude toward nature, unostentatious compositions, responsive paint handling, and conscientious clarity and freshness of vision distinguish his work from the formulaic landscapes of academic contemporaries. Corot declined to participate in the first impressionist exhibition, but his pervasive influence was manifest in works by pupils and followers including Pissarro, Morisot, Renoir, Monet, and Sisley.

More information on this painting can be found in the Gallery publication French Paintings of the Nineteenth Century, Part I: Before Impressionism, which is available as a free PDF https://www.nga.gov/content/dam/ngaweb/research/publications/pdfs/french-paintings-nineteenth-century.pdf

On View

West Building Main Floor, Gallery 93

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on canvas

  • Credit Line

    Chester Dale Collection

  • Dimensions

    overall: 175.6 x 242.6 cm (69 1/8 x 95 1/2 in.)
    framed: 196.9 x 262.9 cm (77 1/2 x 103 1/2 in.)

  • Accession

    1963.10.109

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Louis-Alfred Binant [1823-1904], Paris, by 1855;[1] (his sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 20 April 1904, no. 18); purchased by (Bernheim-Jeune, Paris).[2] Léon Orosdi, Paris, sometime after 1913.[3] (Galerie André Weil, Paris);[4] (Etienne Bignou, Paris); sold 25 June 1934 to Chester Dale [1883-1962], New York; bequest 1963 to NGA.
[1] Alfred Robaut, L'oeuvre de Corot, Paris, 1905: II:90, no. 255. Lent by "M. Binand" to Exposition de centenaire de Corot, Palais Galliéra, Paris, 1895, no. 18; this seems likely to be a misspelling in the catalogue.
[2] Robaut 1905 (see note 1) and reported in the New York Herald, 21 April 1904.
[3] This painting was not included in the sale of Orosdi's collection held at Drouot on 25 May 1923.
[4] Orosdi/Galerie Weil provenance from Chester Dale papers in NGA curatorial records, and the Bignou photograph albums at the Documentation, Musée d'Orsay (copies in NGA curatorial files).

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1834

  • Salon of 1834, Paris, no. 371, as Une fôret

1875

  • Exposition de l'oeuvre de Corot, Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 1875, no. 138, as Jeune femme lisant pres d'un cours d'eau entouré de rochers

1876

  • Exposition des deux tableaux importants par Corot et Gustave Courbet, M.A. Binant, Paris, 1876, no. 1, repro.

1889

  • Exposition centennale de l'art français, Exposition universelle, Paris, 1889, no. 173

1895

  • Exposition de centenaire de Corot, Palais Galliéra, Paris, 1895, no. 18

1908

  • Grafton Galleries, London, 1908

1913

  • Le Musée de Bâle, Basel, 1913, no. 60

1917

  • Französische Kunst des XIX. u. XIX. Jahrhunderts, Kunsthaus, Zurich, 1917, possibly no. 58

1979

  • French Romanticism, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1979, unnumbered checklist.

2008

  • In the Forest of Fontainebleau: Painters and Photographers from Corot to Monet, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 2008, no. 30, repro. (shown only in Washington).

  • In the Forest of Fontainebleau: Painters and Photographers from Corot to Monet, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 2008, no. 30.

2010

  • From Impressionism to Modernism: The Chester Dale Collection, National Gallery of Art, Washington, January 2010-January 2012, unnumbered catalogue, repro.

Bibliography

1875

  • Daliphard, E. "Exposition des oeuvres de Corot." L'Art 2 (1875): 158.

1890

  • Baschet, L. L'Art français. Paris, 1890: repro. opp. 98.

1905

  • Robaut, Alfred, and Etienne Moreau-Nélaton. L'Oeuvre de Corot. Catalogue raisonné et illustré. 5 vols. Paris, 1905: 1:56, 64; 2:90, no. 255, repro; 4:167.

1908

  • Meynel, E. Corot and His Friends. London, 1908: 58.

1909

  • Bouyer, Raymond. "Corot, peintre de figures." Revue de l'art ancien et moderne 26 (1909): 26, 295.

1926

  • Lafargue, M. Corot. New York, 1926: 47.

1930

  • Meier-Graefe, Julius. Corot. Berlin, 1930: 44-45.

1941

  • Catalogue of French Paintings from the Chester Dale Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1941: 1-2, pl. II.

1942

  • French Paintings from the Chester Dale Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 21, repro.

1944

  • French Paintings from the Chester Dale Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1944: 21, repro.

1952

  • Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds., Great Paintings from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1952: 150, color repro.

1953

  • French Paintings from the Chester Dale Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1953: 28, repro.

  • Engel de Janosi, Carlette. "The Forest of Fontainebleau in Painting and Writing." Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 11 (1953): 391-394, 396, repro.

1957

  • Baud-Bovy, Daniel. Corot. Geneva, 1957: 200.

1960

  • Novotny, Fritz. Painting and Sculpture in Europe, 1780-1880. Baltimore, 1960: 106.

1963

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. New York, 1963 (reprinted 1964 in French, German, and Spanish): 323, repro.

1965

  • Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 31.

  • Roberts, Keith. Corot. London, 1965: 42, color pl. 13.

  • Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century Paintings & Sculpture of the French School in the Chester Dale Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 36, repro.

1968

  • National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 23, repro.

  • Gandolfo, Giampaolo et al. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Great Museums of the World. New York, 1968: 77, color repro. (Italian ed., Milan, 1968: 77, color repro.

1972

  • Hours, Madeleine. Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot. New York, 1972: 23, fig. 16.

1974

  • Chu, Petra Ten Doesschate. French Realism and the Dutch Masters: The Influence of Dutch Seventeenth-Century Paintings on the Development of French Painting between 1830 and 1870. Utrecht, 1974: 21-23.

1975

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 78, repro.

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1975: 436, no. 628, color repro.

  • Toussaint, Helene. Hommage à Corot. Exh. cat. Orangerie des Tuileries, Paris, 1975: 38-39, 181.

1978

  • Phaiden Encyclopedia of Art and Artists. New York, 1978: 137.

1984

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 432, no. 616, color repro.

  • Hours, Madeleine. Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot. New York, 1984: 21, fig. 16.

1985

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 97, repro.

1989

  • Wissman, Fronia. Corot's Salon Paintings: Sources from French Classicism to Contemporary Theater Design. Ph.D. diss., 1989: 27-33.

1991

  • Clarke, Michael. Corot and the Art of Landscape. London, 1991: 49, 51, repro.

1992

  • National Gallery of Art, Washington. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 182, repro.

1994

  • Gale, Iain. Corot. London, 1994: 58, repro. 59.

1996

  • Pantazzi, Michael, Vincent Pomarède, and Gary Tinterow. Corot, 1796-1975. Exh. cat. Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais, Paris; National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. New York, 1996: 27, n. 116; 88, n. 2; 111,n.7.

2000

  • Eitner, Lorenz. French Paintings of the Nineteenth Century, Part I: Before Impressionism. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 2000: 29-36, color repro.

2004

  • Hand, John Oliver. National Gallery of Art: Master Paintings from the Collection. Washington and New York, 2004: 356, no. 289, color repro.

2008

  • Corot Souvenirs et variations. Exh. cat., The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo; Kobe City Museum. Tokyo, 2008: 256.

Inscriptions

lower left: COROT

Wikidata ID

Q18178062

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