Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, 'Peasants under the Trees at Dawn', about 1840-5
About the work
Overview
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 background, and the houses and trees in the background dissolve in the radiance.
The setting is Lormes, the principal town in the area of the Morvan, western Burgundy, where many of its inhabitants earned their living by tree felling. The mill quarter of the town is depicted, and the tall building glimpsed on the left is one of two imposing houses which still stand today. Corot frequently visited this region, and during three stays in 1841, 1842 and 1844 he painted around 15 pictures, many distinguished by the originality of their composition.
Key facts
Details
- Full title
- Peasants under the Trees at Dawn
- Artist
- Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot
- Artist dates
- 1796 - 1875
- Date made
- about 1840-5
- Medium and support
- oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 27.3 × 38.8 cm
- Inscription summary
- Signed
- Acquisition credit
- Bought, 1977
- Inventory number
- NG6439
- Location
- Not on display
- Collection
- Main Collection
- Frame
- 18th-century English Frame
Provenance
Given by the artist to the painter William Wyld (1806–1889); his sale, 30 May 1890, lot 136 (600 francs); with Galerie Paul Rosenberg, Paris; in the collection of Albert Sancholle Henraux (1881–1953) by 1930, when exhibited at the Galerie Rosenberg, thus indicating that Henraux probably bought it from Rosenberg himself; in the collection of the diplomat Tony Mayer (1902–1997) by 1949; The initials ‘JD’ written in red paint on the back of the painting possibly refer to Jean Dieterle (died 1971); with Galerie Daber, from whom purchased by the National Gallery in 1977.
Additional information
This painting is included in a list of works with incomplete provenance from 1933–1945; for more information see Whereabouts of paintings 1933–1945.
Text extracted from the ‘Provenance’ section of the catalogue entry in Sarah Herring, ‘National Gallery Catalogues: The Nineteenth Century French Paintings’, vol. 1, ‘The Barbizon School’, London 2019; for further information, see the full catalogue entry.
Exhibition history
-
2009Corot to Monet: A Fresh Look at Landscape from the CollectionThe National Gallery (London)8 July 2009 - 20 September 2009
-
2014Artistic Exchanges: Corot, Costa, LeightonThe National Gallery (London)7 May 2014 - 3 September 2014
Bibliography
-
1905A. Robaut, L'oeuvre de Corot: Catalogue raisonné et illustré, Paris 1905
-
1930P. Rosenberg, Exposition d'œuvres de Corot (1796-1875): Paysages de france et figures (exh. cat., Galerie Paul Rosenberg, Paris), Paris 1930
-
1942G. Bazin, Corot, Paris 1942
-
1960Kunstmuseum Bern, Corot (exh. cat., Kunstmuseum Bern, Bern), Bern 1960
-
1965C. Gould, Corot: An Exhibition of Paintings, Drawings and Prints Arranged by the Arts Council of Great Britain in Association with the Edinburgh Festival Society (exh. cat., Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh; The National Gallery, London), London 1965
-
1966K. Clark, Landscape into Art, Harmondsworth 1966
-
1966J. Leymarie, Corot, Geneva 1966
-
1973M. Geiger, 'Corot et la Bourgogne', Mémoire de l'Académie des Sciences, Arts et Belles-Lettres de Dijon, CXXII, 1973, pp. 329-37
-
1978The National Gallery, The National Gallery: July 1975 - December 1977, London 1978
-
1991M. Clarke, Corot and the Art of Landscape, London 1991
-
1991J. Leighton, Corot (National Gallery Touring Exhibition) (exh. cat. Manchester City Art Gallery, 18 May - 30 June 1991; Norwich Castle Museum & Art Gallery, 6 July - 18 August 1991), Manchester 1991
-
1993P. Berte-Langereau, 'Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot dans le Morvan', Camosine. Les Annuales du Nivernais, 74, 1993
-
1994S. Adams, The Barbizon School and the Origins of Impressionism, London 1994
-
1995E.H. Gombrich, Shadows: The Depiction of Cast Shadows in Western Art (exh. cat. The National Gallery, 26 April - 18 June 1995), London 1995
-
2001
C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001
-
2019Herring, Sarah, National Gallery Catalogues: The Nineteenth Century French Paintings, 1, The Barbizon School, London 2019
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.
Images
More works by Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot
(Showing 6 of 27 works)
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...
Not on display
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...
Not on display
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
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
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,...
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...
Not on display
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...
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
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 on...
Not on display
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
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
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
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
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...
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...
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...
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....
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
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
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
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...
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
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...
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
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
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