Woman Reading in the Studio

c. 1868

Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot

Artist, French, 1796 - 1875

A pale-skinned woman sits at a table leaning over an open book in a brightly lit room in this loosely painted, horizontal scene. The woman is shown from the knees up, and she sits in the center of the picture with her body angled toward the table to our right. Her wavy, chestnut-brown hair is short or pulled back to either side of a center part. She wears a white shirt under a fern-green jacket. The sleeve on the arm closer to us has slipped down over her shoulder. The portion of her skirt we can see is pale peach with plum-purple stripes. She sits on a wooden chair with a curved and possibly upholstered rust-red back. She rests one elbow on the table and her cheek on that fist. She holds open the pages of a book with her other hand, at the edge of the brown table. The room beyond her has walls and possibly works of art painted with swipes of golden yellow, warm caramel, and dark brown. At first glance, a painting of a landscape could be mistaken for a window on the back wall, but then we notice the tall legs of the easel holding it. The artist signed the lower right, “COROT.”

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on paperboard on wood

  • Credit Line

    Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon

  • Dimensions

    overall: 32.5 x 41.3 cm (12 13/16 x 16 1/4 in.)
    framed: 50.5 x 59.1 x 6.4 cm (19 7/8 x 23 1/4 x 2 1/2 in.)

  • Accession

    1985.64.9

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

I. de La Rochenoire, by 1875.[1] Alexandre Dumas [1824-1895]; (his sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 16 February 1882, no. 13, as La Lecture, figure). (Dumas sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 12-13 May 1892, no. 22).[2] (Dumas sale, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 2-3 March 1896, no. 12). Gaillard collection, by 1905.[3] Ferdinand Blumenthal [d. 1914], Paris; [4] his son Count Cecil Pecci-Blunt [d. 1965], Paris, until at least 1946.[5] (Wildenstein & Co., New York); sold 27 January 1960 to Paul Mellon, Upperville, Virginia; gift 1985 to NGA.
[1] Lent by I. de la Rochenoire to Exposition de l'oeuvre de Corot, Ecole Nationale des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 1875, no. 135.
[2] According to an annotated copy of sale catalogue in the M. Knoedler library, the painting was purchased by Durand-Ruel et Cie, Paris. If, however, this is true, it is unclear how the painting came to be included in the Dumas estate sale in 1896.
[3] Alfred Robaut, L'oeuvre de Corot, Paris, 1905: III:116, no. 1570, listed the Gaillard collection in the provenance.
[4] According to Wildenstein and Co. précis, dated 27 January 1960, in NGA curatorial files.
[5] Pecci-Blunt had the painting on consignment with Jacques Seligmann in 1941 but decided not to sell his collection at that time. Receipt for the return of the paintings to Pecci-Blunt dated November 19, 1941, Jacques Seligmann Papers, Archives of American Art, Box 75, folder 30. Lent by Pecci-Blunt through Seligmann to The Functions of Color in Painting, Phillips Memorial Gallery, Washington, 1941. See Correspondence between Seligmann and Phillips in Jacques Seligmann Papers, Archives of American Art, Box 130, folder 5 (copies NGA curatorial files). Lent by Pecci-Blunt to Exhibition of Paintings by Corot, Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1946, no. 60.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1875

  • Exposition de l'oeuvre de Corot, Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 1875, no. 135.

1928

  • Exposition d'oeuvres de Camille J.-B. Corot (1796-1875): Figures et paysages d'Italie au profit de la Bibliothèque d'art et d'archéologie de l'Université de Paris, Galerie Rosenberg, Paris, 1928, no. 44.

1936

  • Exposition Corot, Musée de l'Orangerie, Paris, 1936, no. 92.

1941

  • Probably The Functions of Color in Painting, Phillips Memorial Gallery, Washington, 1941, no. 13.

1946

  • Exhibition of Paintings by Corot, Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1946, no. 60, repro.

1966

  • French Paintings from the Collections of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon and Mrs. Mellon Bruce, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1966, no. 4, repro.

1986

  • Gifts to the Nation: Selected Acquisitions from the Collections of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1986, unnumbered checklist, repro.

2011

  • Corot: L'Armoire Secrète, Eine Lesende im Kontext, Sammlung Oskar Reinhart "Am Römerholz", Winterthur, 2011, no. 19, repro.

2019

  • Becoming Matisse : the greatest gift of the masters, 1890-1911, Musée Matisse, Le Cateau-Cambrésis, Le Cateau-Cambrésis, 2019 - 2020, no. 15, repro.

Bibliography

1905

  • Robaut, Alfred, and Etienne Moreau-Nélaton. L'Oeuvre de Corot. Catalogue raisonné et illustré. 5 vols. Paris, 1905: 3:116-117, no. 1570, repro.

1930

  • Bernheim de Villers, G. C. Corot peintre de figures. Paris, 1930: 68-70, no. 269, repro.

1946

  • Marceau, Henri. "Corot." Art News (May 1946): 32.

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: 75-78, color repro.

Inscriptions

lower right: COROT

Wikidata ID

Q18177991

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