.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
'This is not a landscape painter, this is the very poet of the landscape, who breathes the sadnesses 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.' (Theodore de Banville, 'Le Salon de 1861', Revue fantaisiste 2, (July 1, 1861), pp. 235 - 36.)
During the 1860s and 70s, Corot's vehicle for these sentiments expressed by de Banville were the souvenir paintings, the remembrance of a particular place that the artist distilled into a picture. Often started as a plein-air sketch, these souvenir paintings were then finished in the studio. Corot made his sentiments about the landscape visible by rendering the effect or the impression of a scene. These souvenir pictures are often bathed in a silvery light that seems to be the result of the artist filtering the images through his memory.
Bords d'Etang aux deux vaches, souvenir d'Italie depicts a lone figure at the extreme right of the composition, nestled in a wood by a pond with a village in the far background. The composition is deftly divided into distinct fore, middle and backgrounds and the entire composition is bathed in a silvery light filtering through the trees in the foreground. The artist has captured the effect of light on various surfaces: the simmering surface of the pond, the reflection of the dying light on the white bark of the birch trees and the grey stone and pink roofs of the buildings in the far background. Through the light, he brings the entire composition into a cohesive whole, and fully captures the immediacy of the landscape.
We are grateful to Martin Dieterle and Claire Lebeau for confirming the authenticity of this work.
During the 1860s and 70s, Corot's vehicle for these sentiments expressed by de Banville were the souvenir paintings, the remembrance of a particular place that the artist distilled into a picture. Often started as a plein-air sketch, these souvenir paintings were then finished in the studio. Corot made his sentiments about the landscape visible by rendering the effect or the impression of a scene. These souvenir pictures are often bathed in a silvery light that seems to be the result of the artist filtering the images through his memory.
Bords d'Etang aux deux vaches, souvenir d'Italie depicts a lone figure at the extreme right of the composition, nestled in a wood by a pond with a village in the far background. The composition is deftly divided into distinct fore, middle and backgrounds and the entire composition is bathed in a silvery light filtering through the trees in the foreground. The artist has captured the effect of light on various surfaces: the simmering surface of the pond, the reflection of the dying light on the white bark of the birch trees and the grey stone and pink roofs of the buildings in the far background. Through the light, he brings the entire composition into a cohesive whole, and fully captures the immediacy of the landscape.
We are grateful to Martin Dieterle and Claire Lebeau for confirming the authenticity of this work.