.jpg?w=1)
拍品专文
Corot first visited Semur-en-Auxois in 1858, and was delighted to discover that this part of Burgundy was home to a number of his distant relatives. He reported that 'The region is full of friendly labourers who all share my name. They call out to each other in the fields: "Hey Corot!" That's all one hears. I kept thinking people were calling me, and I felt as if I were among family." (quoted in Corot, Corot: Raconté par lui-même et par ces amis: Pensées et écrits du peintre, vol. 1, p. 133).
Corot had a particular fondness for painting views of roads and pathways leading up or downhill towards the horizon. This tendency is particularly obvious in his vertical canvases, in which he almost invariably used trees to frame and exaggerate the upward axis of his composition. Corot painted a number of uphill views of villages in this format which, like the present work, lead the viewer's eye past figures, up a path to a building beyond.
As in the present painting, Corot often chose to make a building - frequently the village church - the focus of his composition by silhouetting it against the sky. Commenting on the importance of this aspect of Corot's work Moreau-Nélaton wrote: 'A Frenchman of my generation and education doesn't understand a French village without its church. For him the belfry is the soul of all the built-up areas of our land. If a Frenchman is a painter of landscapes, one can be certain that more than one will have inspired his brush.' (Moreau-Nélaton, quoted in De Corot aux Impressionistes, donations Moreau-Nélaton, Grand Palais, Paris, 1991, p.96).
Corot painted another view of Semur looking up towards the church, and similarly composed views of the villages of Marissel, Ville d'Avray and Argenteuil.
The authenticity of this work has kindly been confirmed in 2005 by Martin Dieterle and Claire Lebeau.
Corot had a particular fondness for painting views of roads and pathways leading up or downhill towards the horizon. This tendency is particularly obvious in his vertical canvases, in which he almost invariably used trees to frame and exaggerate the upward axis of his composition. Corot painted a number of uphill views of villages in this format which, like the present work, lead the viewer's eye past figures, up a path to a building beyond.
As in the present painting, Corot often chose to make a building - frequently the village church - the focus of his composition by silhouetting it against the sky. Commenting on the importance of this aspect of Corot's work Moreau-Nélaton wrote: 'A Frenchman of my generation and education doesn't understand a French village without its church. For him the belfry is the soul of all the built-up areas of our land. If a Frenchman is a painter of landscapes, one can be certain that more than one will have inspired his brush.' (Moreau-Nélaton, quoted in De Corot aux Impressionistes, donations Moreau-Nélaton, Grand Palais, Paris, 1991, p.96).
Corot painted another view of Semur looking up towards the church, and similarly composed views of the villages of Marissel, Ville d'Avray and Argenteuil.
The authenticity of this work has kindly been confirmed in 2005 by Martin Dieterle and Claire Lebeau.