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Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, 'Monsieur Pivot on Horseback', about 1853

About the work

In this small, intimate portrait, the rider, turning to look at the viewer, seems to have been caught unawares. He is Monsieur Joseph Pivot, who was about 50 at the time and a neighbour of Corot in Ville-d’Avray. He frequently rode his horse in a nearby wood where Corot also went to paint, and one day, seeing him ride by, Corot asked him to stop so that he could make a quick sketch of him.

Remarkably, technical analysis of this painting has indeed shown that the image of the man on his horse has been painted on top of an existing landscape. The pale blue paint of the original sky is visible under the thin dark green paint at the top left of the picture. The first landscape was wider in format. Once back in the studio Corot cut down the canvas and finished off the woodland setting, adding the slender curved trunks of the silver birches over the dark green paint.

Key facts

Full title
Monsieur Pivot on Horseback
Artist
Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot
Artist dates
1796 - 1875
Date made
about 1853
Medium and support
oil on canvas
Dimensions
39.2 × 30.3 cm
Inscription summary
Signed
Acquisition credit
Bought, 1923
Inventory number
NG3816
Location
Not on display
Collection
Main Collection

About this record

If you know more about this painting or have spotted an error, please contact us. Please note that exhibition histories are listed from 2009 onwards. Bibliographies may not be complete; more comprehensive information is available in the National Gallery Library.

More works by Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot

(Showing 6 of 27 works)
A Flood
A Flood
Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot
A river runs from the left edge of this painting to the bottom right corner. A bank rises gently towards the right. A lone figure dressed in a red shawl and bright yellow hat stands motionless under the leaning tree. In the centre a group of houses with steep gabled roofs stands amid a further gr...
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A Wagon in the Plains of Artois
A Wagon in the Plains of Artois
Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot
This view, painted in May 1871, forms part of a group painted by Corot during his stay in north-east France during the spring and summer of 1871. On the horizon, just right of centre, stands a windmill, its sails visible against the sky. Windmills were an extremely common sight in the Pas de Cala...
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Avignon from the West
Avignon from the West
Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot
This panoramic view of the medieval city of Avignon in the south of France most likely dates from a visit Corot made in July 1836. We are looking at Avignon from the small town of Villeneuve-lès-Avignon, on the opposite side of the Rhône.The luminosity of this oil study is similar to outdoor oil...
On display elsewhere
Cows in a Marshy Landscape
Cows in a Marshy Landscape
Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot
Despite the presence of a village in the background, it is not possible to be certain about the location of this pastoral scene. However, the composition is similar to a view of the village of Gisors in Normandy, which Corot painted in October 1873. This picture may be a pared-down view of Gisors...
Not on display
Dardagny, Morning
Dardagny, Morning
Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot
A woman wearing a long dark dress and yellow straw hat stands next to a cow on a path which draws the viewer into the landscape. Long shadows are cast by the bushes and tree on the left. In the background the lavender blue hills of the Jura descend from left to right. The view is near Dardagny,...
Room 41
Evening on the Lake
Evening on the Lake
Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot
It is the end of the day, and a fishing boat heads into a secluded inlet, guided by a lone figure. To the right is a wooded promontory, the branches of the trees stretching out over the water. The sun’s last rays are caught by one or two of the clouds, but the overall light is pearly, and the blu...
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Italian Woman
Italian Woman
Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot
A supremely poised young woman is painted in three-quarter view. Her right hand curls around the handle of a mirror, while she appears to be caressing a lock of hair with her left. She wears a white blouse under a black velvet bodice and yellow detachable sleeves over her arms. This study is one...
Room 41
Landscape at Arleux-du-Nord
Landscape at Arleux-du-Nord
Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot
This view belongs to the group of pictures that Corot painted during his stay in north-east France in 1871. The site depicted is probably the Canal de la Sensée between Arleux and Palluel. Corot first painted the view in May 1871, basing his picture on a study by his friend Alfred Robaut, with wh...
Not on display
Peasants under the Trees at Dawn
Peasants under the Trees at Dawn
Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot
Under a spreading tree in the left foreground a man saws amidst a pile of logs while a woman reaches up into the tree itself. A stream (the Auxois) winds its way from behind the foreground boulder through the gully on the left-hand side to the hill beyond. The light is coming from the right backg...
Not on display
Seated Woman
Seated Woman
Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot
Throughout his life Corot painted images of women dressed in particular costume, often folk dress. They cannot be described as portraits, and the sitters are often unknown. In this example, the woman wears a white dress of perhaps muslin or organza decorated with pink satin ribbons. In her left h...
Not on display
Souvenir of a Journey to Coubron
Souvenir of a Journey to Coubron
Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot
The marshy pond in the left foreground blends into land rising to a small hill on the right, where two buildings are nestled behind a row of tall trees. In 1867 Corot made the first of many visits to Coubron, which lies to the east of Paris. During a visit in April 1873 he made a sketch in the n...
Not on display
Souvenir of Palluel
Souvenir of Palluel
Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot
This view is one of a number painted by Corot during his stay in north-east France in the spring and summer of 1871. In May he stayed with his friend and fellow artist Alfred Robaut at Douai. Robaut later wrote that this work, painted in just a few hours, was a copy after one of his own sketches,...
Not on display
Summer Morning
Summer Morning
Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot
The pond which takes up the foreground probably lies in the grounds of the tall building glimpsed at the extreme right, perhaps a mill or château. Beyond an open gate lies an unseen road or lane bordered by a hedge, and further in the distance stands a higher bank of trees. At the left, the woman...
On display elsewhere
The Four Times of Day: Evening
The Four Times of Day: Evening
Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot
This is the third in a series of four panels illustrating the different times of day that Corot painted for his friend, fellow artist Alexandre-Gabriel Decamps. It is evening and colours are at their richest. Nearest to us, a mysterious figure is wearing what appears to be a dark brown monk’s hab...
Room 40
The Four Times of Day: Morning
The Four Times of Day: Morning
Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot
This is the first in a series of four panels illustrating the different times of day that Corot painted for his friend, fellow artist Alexandre-Gabriel Decamps. Two tall trees with full foliage on the left of the panel are offset by two smaller trees on the right. Corot’s use of trees on either s...
Room 40
The Four Times of Day: Night
The Four Times of Day: Night
Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot
A rare example of a night scene by Corot, this is the last in a series of four panels illustrating the different times of day that he painted for his friend, fellow artist Alexandre-Gabriel Decamps. As in Morning, we see a single figure, probably a man, accompanied by a dog. There is a sense of a...
Room 40
The Four Times of Day: Noon
The Four Times of Day: Noon
Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot
This is the second in the series The Four Times of Day that Corot painted for his friend, fellow artist Alexandre-Gabriel Decamps. In this panel, the light is brighter than in the previous panel, Morning, and fills the picture. There is an overall lightening of tone and a wider range of colours....
Room 40
The Leaning Tree Trunk
The Leaning Tree Trunk
Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot
This idyllic view of elegant trees and a peaceful lake is one of a number of related scenes painted by Corot at this period. The lake is one of those at Ville-d'Avray near Paris, the location of Corot’s family home, and the trees are based on a drawing he had made at Civita Castellana during his...
Not on display
The Marsh at Arleux
The Marsh at Arleux
Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot
This sketch was painted at Arleux-du-Nord, to the south of Douai in north-east France. Corot’s friend and fellow-artist Alfred Robaut, who lived in Douai, had persuaded him to leave Paris in April 1871 to escape the Commune following France’s defeat in the Franco-Prussian war. Corot spent the spr...
Not on display
The Oak in the Valley
The Oak in the Valley
Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot
This view was one of several pictures that Corot painted in May 1871, when he was staying with his friend Alfred Robaut in Douai. While many of the pictures are of specific sites, this particular view has not been identified and was probably painted in the studio.The handling, particularly of the...
Not on display
The Roman Campagna, with the Claudian Aqueduct
The Roman Campagna, with the Claudian Aqueduct
Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot
It is likely that Corot painted this small oil sketch on paper in the spring of 1826, a few months after beginning his first of three trips to Italy. He painted a number of views that included the Aqua Claudia, a Roman aqueduct, which you can see in the distance, around five kilometres south-east...
Room 39
The Seine near Rouen
The Seine near Rouen
Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot
Corot painted this view of the landscape and river Seine west of Rouen from the top of the Tour du Gros Horloge, a popular viewing platform in the city for the vistas it afforded of the surrounding countryside. The island just visible at the far left is the Ile Rollet, which is now connected to t...
Not on display
The Wagon ('Souvenir of Saintry')
The Wagon ('Souvenir of Saintry')
Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot
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...
Room 41
The Wood Gatherer
The Wood Gatherer
Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot
This landscape is one of a number painted by Corot in his later years, which combine a foreground of trees and figures, a lake or sea at the right, and in the left background sunlit buildings descending a hillside. Corot would interweave elements from different locations, juxtaposing views of suc...
Not on display
Staircase in the Villa of Maecenas, Tivoli
Staircase in the Villa of Maecenas, Tivoli
Probably by Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot
Not on display
Seascape with Figures on Cliffs
Seascape with Figures on Cliffs
Follower of Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot
This small painting of a girl in blue and a woman in a black coat standing on cliffs as they look out to sea was previously titled View over the Mediterranean. However, it has recently been proposed that this is a view of Trouville in Normandy, which was a popular destination for various artists...
Not on display
A Peasant Woman
A Peasant Woman
Imitator of Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot
In this pensive study, a woman is dressed in traditional Italian costume. Her distinctive headdress is a tovaglia, a piece of folded linen or other cloth worn flat on the head and covering the neck. With increased Italian migration to France from the middle of the nineteenth century, the subject...
On display elsewhere
You've viewed 6 of 27 works
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