Ville-d'Avray

c. 1865

Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot

Artist, French, 1796 - 1875

From a grassy embankment, we look across a placid body of water to a cluster of cream-white buildings on the far bank in this horizontal landscape painting. The scene is painted with blended strokes, giving it a soft and hazy look. Closest to us, dots of canary yellow, sky blue, and white suggest flowers growing on the verdant embankment. Closer to the water, two trees have ash-brown trunks and canopies like clouds of pale sage green. To our left of the trees, a light-skinned woman stands near the water with a bundle on her back. She wears a straw-yellow cap, a shin-length dress, and an apron. A second person wearing a yellow cap and a blue shirt sits facing away from us, to our right of the trees. Buildings and trees along the far bank are reflected in the pale blue water. The villa there is made up of several interconnected buildings with rectangular windows and shallow, gabled, charcoal-gray roofs. One more building is nestled into the trees that surround the complex, to our right. Painted with a few strokes of ocean blue, gray, or pale yellow, at least three people stand or walk along the far bank. The forest stretches across the horizon, which comes a third of the way up the canvas. A few small, puffy white clouds drift across the expanse of blue sky above. The artist signed the painting with black letters in the lower left corner, “Corot.”

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on canvas

  • Credit Line

    Gift of Count Cecil Pecci-Blunt

  • Dimensions

    overall: 49.3 x 65.5 cm (19 7/16 x 25 13/16 in.)
    framed: 81.3 x 97.5 x 11.6 cm (32 x 38 3/8 x 4 9/16 in.)

  • Accession

    1955.9.1

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

(Theodore Bonjean, Paris); sold 1890 to (Boussod Valadon et Cie., Paris); resold 1890 to (Theodore Bonjean, Paris).[1] Monsieur Bruneau, Paris, by 1895.[2] Ferdinand Blumenthal [d. 1914], Paris; his son Count Cecil Pecci-Blunt [d. 1965], Paris and New York;[3] gift 1955 to NGA.
[1] According to Boussod Valadon stockbooks (Dieterle collection, Series II, Box 12, p. 154, Getty Center Library, copies in NGA curatorial files). See also Alfred Robaut, L'oeuvre de Corot, Paris, 1905: III:88, no. 1505.
[2] Lent by Bruneau to Exposition de centenaire de Corot, Palais Galliéra, Paris, 1895, no. 23.
[3] 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).

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1895

  • Exposition de centenaire de Corot, Palais Galliéra, Paris, 1895, no. 23, as Maison de Corot à Ville d'Avray

1941

  • The Functions of Color in Painting, Phillips Memorial Gallery, Washington, 1941, no. 17.

1942

  • The Serene World of Corot, an Exhibition in Aid of the Salvation Army War Fund, Wildenstein & Co., New York, 1942, no. 52, repro., as L'Etang de Ville d'Avray

1946

  • Corot, Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1946, no. 52, repro., as L'Etang de Ville d'Avray

1980

  • Loan for display with permanent collection, Munch Museum, Oslo, 1980-1981.

1988

  • The Pastoral Landscape: The Modern Vision, The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C., 1988-1989, no. 108, fig. 185.

1990

  • Französische Impressionisten und ihre Wegbereiter aus der National Gallery of Art, Washington und dem Cincinnati Art Museum, Neue Pinakothek, Munich, 1990, no. 3, repro.

1992

  • From El Greco to Cézanne: Masterpieces of European Painting from the National Gallery of Art, Washington, and The Metroplitan Museum of Art, New York, National Gallery of Greece, Athens, 1992-1993, no. 38, repro.

1996

  • Corot, Courbet und die Maler von Barbizon: Les amis de la nature, Haus der Kunst, Munich, 1996, no. B21, repro.

  • Obras Maestras de la National Gallery of Art de Washington, Museo Nacional de Antropología, Mexico City, 1996-1997, unnumbered catalogue, 148-149, color repro.

1999

  • Masterpieces from the National Gallery of Art, Washington, Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art; Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, 1999, no. 3, repro.

  • Around Impressionism: French Paintings from the National Gallery of Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1999, no cat.

Bibliography

1905

  • Robaut, Alfred, and Etienne Moreau-Nélaton. L'Oeuvre de Corot. Catalogue raisonné et illustré. 5 vols. Paris, 1905: 3:88-89, no. 1505, repro.

1959

  • Evans, Grose. French Painting of the 19th Century in the National Gallery of Art. Washington, D.C., 1959 (Booklet Number Two in Ten Schools of Painting in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.): 18, color repro.

1962

  • Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds. Treasures from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1962: 154, color repro.

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: 30.

1966

  • Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds. A Pageant of Painting from the National Gallery of Art. 2 vols. New York, 1966: 2:414, color repro.

1968

  • National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 24, repro.

1972

  • Hours, Madeleine. Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot. New York, 1972: 47, fig. 52.

1975

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 76, repro.

1984

  • Hours, Madeleine. Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot. New York, 1984: 43, fig. 48

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 432, no. 621, color repro.

1985

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 96, repro.

1990

  • Französische Impressionisten und ihre Wegbereiter aus der National Gallery of Art, Washington und dem Cincinnati Art Museum. Exh. cat. Neue Pinakothek, Munich, 1990: no. 3, repro.

1991

  • Coman, Florence E. Joie de Vivre: French Paintings from the National Gallery of Art. Washington, 1991: no. 2, repro.

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: 57-61, color repro.

Inscriptions

lower left: COROT

Wikidata ID

Q7931023

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