Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, 'The Wagon ('Souvenir of Saintry')', 1874
About the work
Overview
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.
Key facts
Details
- 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
- Room 41
- Collection
- Main Collection
- Frame
- 18th-century French Frame
Provenance
In the collection of the dramatist and opera librettist Albert de Saint‐Albin (1843–1901); in the collection of the Greek banker and collector John Balli (1849–1914), London, possibly by 1903; his sale, Georges Petit, 22 May 1913, lot 7 (‘La Charette [Souvenir de Saintry]’), bought by Isidore Montaignac (1851–1924) for 46,000 francs; in the collection of Greek industrialist Alcibiades Vagliano (1851–1924); his sale, Christie’s, London, 15 July 1955, lot 15, bought by A.L. Betts for 8,200 guineas, the top price paid in the modern masters section; in the collection of Rudolph Ernst Brandt (1874–1961), of the banking family which originated in Hamburg, who worked at the London branch of William Brandt’s Sons & Co.; presented to the National Gallery by William Edward Brandt (1897–1987), Henry Augustus Brandt (1902–1986), Walter Augustus Brandt (1902–1978) and Alice Mary Bleecker (1903–1984) in memory of Rudolph Ernst Brandt, 1963.
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
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2012Carl Schuch: Ein europäischer MalerÖsterreichische Galerie Belvedere26 June 2012 - 14 October 2012
Bibliography
-
1905A. Robaut, L'oeuvre de Corot: Catalogue raisonné et illustré, Paris 1905
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1965The National Gallery, The National Gallery: June 1962 - December 1964, London 1965
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1970Davies, Martin, and Cecil Gould, National Gallery Catalogues: French School: Early 19th Century, Impressionists, Post-Impressionists etc., London 1970
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1990R. Thomson, Camille Pissarro: Impressionism, Landscape and Rural Labour (exh. cat. Birmingham CMuseum and Art Gallery, 8 March - 22 April 1990; Burrell Collection, 4 May - 17 June 1990), Birmingham 1990
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1991M. Clarke, Corot and the Art of Landscape, London 1991
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1996
C. Heilmann, M. Clarke and J. Sillevis (eds.), Corot, Courbet und die maler von Barbizon: Les amis de la nature (exh. cat., Haus der Kunst, München), Munich 1996
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2001
C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001
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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
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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...
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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...
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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...
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