Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, 'The Wagon ('Souvenir of Saintry')', 1874
Full title | The Wagon ('Souvenir of Saintry') |
---|---|
Artist | Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot |
Artist dates | 1796 - 1875 |
Date made | 1874 |
Medium and support | oil on canvas |
Dimensions | 46 × 55.9 cm |
Inscription summary | Signed; Dated |
Acquisition credit | Presented by William Edward Brandt, Henry Augustus Brandt, Walter Augustus Brandt and Alice Mary Bleecker in memory of Rudolph Ernst Brandt, 1963 |
Inventory number | NG6340 |
Location | Not on display |
Collection | Main Collection |
A sandy road leads from the immediate foreground to a cluster of sunlit buildings in the centre background. A further, much hazier group, lies just to the right of the prominent tree. The first group depicts the village of Saintry, south-east of Paris. The square tower with its pointed roof is a dovecot which still stands next to the town hall. The buildings to the left are probably those of a different village, Morsang-sur-Seine. While attending a family celebration in May 1873, Corot painted the first version of this view. He painted this second version a year later, almost certainly in the studio, shifting the viewpoint slightly and changing some of the details.
In his later years Corot painted substantial numbers of ‘souvenirs’, or paintings based on memories of actual places. This painting could be also described as a repetition or variant as it is so close to the first version.
In this view a sandy road leads from the immediate foreground to a cluster of sunlit buildings in the centre background. A further group, towards the left, is much hazier in appearance, and those surrounding the church appear to dissolve into the grey hills beyond. The first group depicts the village of Saintry, near Corbeil on the banks of the Seine, about 20 miles south-east of Paris. The square tower with its pointed roof is a dovecot, the last remaining building of a former château, and still stands next to the town hall.
The buildings to the left are probably those of a different village, Morsang-sur-Seine. The prominent tower belongs to the church of Saint-Germain. While attending a family celebration in May 1873, Corot painted the first version of this view, Saintry, near Corbeil. La Route Blanche (private collection). A year later he painted this second version, almost certainly in the studio, shifting the viewpoint slightly and changing some of the details. In the first picture there is no wagon but more people, including a woman with a brown cow standing under the tree at the left. Corot obviously thought about including her in this second painting, as a ghostly figure is visible under the tree, sketched in but never finished.
In his later years Corot painted substantial numbers of ‘souvenirs’, or paintings based on memories of actual places, in some cases juxtaposing elements from different landscapes to form a harmonious whole. This painting could also be described as a repetition or variant as it is so close to the first version, and Corot could well have painted it with the original next to him. Some elements, such as the row of shimmering trees on the right, are typical of Corot’s late studio style. Yet the composition as a whole retains a real sense of the original landscape.
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