European Art

The authenticity of this lot has been confirmed by Claire Lebeau-Dieterle based on first-hand inspection. It will be included in the sixth supplement of Corot's work as an addendum in its digital version. A letter of authentication from Mme. Lebeau-Dieterle accompanies the painting.

Provenance:

Boussod, Valadon, & Co., Paris, no. 30083

Jacob Ruppert, New York, acquired from the above

M. Knoedler & Co., New York

Frost & Reed, London (as Ville d'Avray)

Watson Art Galleries, Montreal

Lot note:

This is not a landscape painter, this is the very poet of the landscape, who breathes the sadnsses and joys of nature. The bond, the great bond that makes us the brothers of rooks and trees, he sees it; his figures, as poetic as his forests, are not strangers to the woodland that surrounds them. He knows more than anyone, he has discovered all the customs of boughs and leaves; and now that he is sure he will not distort their inner life, he can dispense with all servile imitation. (Théodore de Banville, 'Le Salon de 1861', Revue fantaisiste 2, 1 July 1861, pp. 235-6.)

The present painting, Gardienne et ses deux vaches au marais, c. 1860-65, resembles many of the artist’s works depicting Ville d’Avray, the artwork’s previous title given by Frost & Reed, London, which it passed through sometime in the 20th century. Located approximately 7.5 miles west from the center of Paris, the area was an inspiration throughout Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot’s career. The painter and collector Moreau-Nelaton noted that ‘Providence created Ville-d’Avray for Corot, and Corot for Ville-d’Avray’. Corot first visited the area after his parents purchased an eighteenth century villa there; his room was located on the third floor and had a view of the large pond, l’Etang neuf. He was later to inherit the home after his father’s death in 1847.

The same year his parents purchased their country villa, Corot began painting classes at the Académie Suisse in Paris. In 1822, he became a pupil of Achille-Etna Michallon, but his teacher died prematurely, and so Corot joined the studio of Jean-Victor Bertin. After his studies, the young artist would travel throughout his career across Europe, including to Italy, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and London. Initially, Corot’s early work was in the Classical historical genre, but after meeting the Barbizon painters Théodore Rousseau and Charles-François Daubigny, his work gradually evolved to focus on plein-air landscapes executed in a hazy, diffused light. Fame was to come to the artist in the mid-1860s when his annual contributions to the Salon met with wide acclaim from the critics and the public. Corot was also to have a profound influence on the younger artists who eventually became members of the Impressionist movement, including Berthe Morisot and Camille Pissarro.

Despite his peripatetic ways, Corot continued to visit and paint Ville d’Avray throughout his life. The present painting, circa 1860-1865, was executed late in his career. It may depict the banks of l’Etang neuf, on whose northeast side the home of Corot's family was situated. Another of the lakeside buildings is visible to the right, possibly one of the Cabassud houses which appear in other examples of Corot's open views across the water. The influence of seventeenth century Dutch art can be seen in this painting, particularly the work of Jacob van Ruisdael, which influenced the artist earlier in the 1830s. Ruisdael combined realism with emotional expressiveness in his evocations of nature and he frequently endeavored to create in his works the sense of being inside the woods, a theme explored by Corot here. The foreground is in shadow, with a mass of dark green trees dominating the middle ground. Touches of ochre and gold shimmer through the shadowy canopy, suggesting the gleam of sunlight. The radiant swathe of sky between the trees and a bright patch reflected in the water below offer a bright contrapuntal to the dusky woods. Along the far bank, a woman watches two cows wade in the stream, her yellow cap and red shawl punctuating the dark environs. The woman and the cows provide a harmonious presence to the otherwise secluded landscape. Gardienne et ses deux vaches au marais, reveals Corot’s innate ability to capture his local environs while also translating the atmospheric effects of sunlight and shadow, to create a serene and alluring composition.