Biography
Camille Corot is a key figure in landscape painting of the Romantic era. His work combines neoclassical traditions and elements that were later fully embodied in impressionism. Corot is also a portrait painter; in oils he skillfully conveyed the character of not only his sitters, but also himself.
Childhood and youth
Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot was born on July 17, 1796 in Paris. Unlike many of his contemporaries, he lived in a wealthy family. The artist’s parents owned a women’s hat shop, which was extremely popular among French fashionistas. The Corot couple’s earnings were so high that they could afford to invest in real estate.
For several years, Corot studied at the Lycée Pierre Corneille in Rouen on a scholarship. He showed no desire for knowledge, even for drawing lessons, so his parents had to transfer their son to a simpler institution.
At the age of 19, Corot, according to biographers, was “a big child, shy and awkward.” He blushed when people addressed him, ran into another room from girls who were popping into the store to try on a hat, doted on his mother and was afraid of his father’s rudeness.
Personal life
The last thing that interested researchers in the biography of Camille Corot was his personal life. In any case, there is no information in open sources about the artist’s wives or heirs.
It can be assumed that Corot perceived women only as models. Taking into account his deep affection for his mother and his youthful shyness in front of the opposite sex, it is difficult to imagine the artist as a ladies’ man.
Painting
Most of the masters, whose names are heard today in the leading galleries of the world, showed a penchant for art almost from the cradle. Camille Corot heeded the call of his brush only in 1815, at the age of 19. His first studio was his own room on the 3rd floor with skylights.
The head of the Corot family dreamed that his children Annette, Camille and Victoire would continue the hat business. He persistently taught them how to drapery and how to keep accounts. At the age of 26, Corot found the strength to tell his father that business was not his element.
Corot began his creative ascent in 1821 with landscapes. Together with his teacher Achille-Etna Michalion, he went out into nature and redrew what he saw.
“I created the first landscape under the supervision of Michalion. The only thing he advised me was to transfer with the greatest precision what I see in front of me onto the canvas. The lesson worked, and since then I have always valued accuracy,” Corot wrote.
After Michalion’s death in 1822, Jean-Victor Bertin became Corot’s teacher. He forced the artist to redraw pictures from books on botany to understand the organic form.
Both teachers were neoclassicists, but Corot’s early works show that he himself gravitated towards realism. In his paintings, the artist skillfully “merged” these trends together.
Kamil is a productive master. In 1825–1828 alone, on a trip to Italy, he created more than 200 sketches and 150 paintings. In total, the romantic’s work includes more than 3 thousand works. We are not just talking about oil paintings; Corot was known as a talented engraver; he created about 200 images.
Art critics are unable to single out the best painting by Corot, since each of them is the highest manifestation of art. Claude Monet, a famous landscape painter, said about his compatriot: “There is only one master – Corot. We are nothing compared to him.”
Portraits occupy a special place in Corot’s paintings. Most often he painted girls against the backdrop of nature, but he did not disdain his own image. The earliest self-portrait dates back to 1835.
In the 1860s, Corot became interested in photography. This type of art, which at that time existed in black and white, further suppressed the palette of the artist, who had previously painted in gray, brown, and pinkish tones. Journalist Théophile Thor-Bürger even noted:
“Koro knows no other time of day than morning, and no other color than pale gray.”
Because of Corot’s passion for muted shades, many find it strange that the Impressionists took their example from him, since the followers of this style were not afraid to experiment with colors. However, Pierre Auguste Renoir, Edgar Degas and Pablo Picasso noted that if not for Corot, they would never have become artists.
Death
On February 22, 1875, Camille Corot passed away as a 78-year-old man. The cause of death was advanced stomach cancer. The artist’s body rests in the family crypt in the largest cemetery in France – Père Lachaise (24th sector).
Paintings
- 1826 – “Rome. Forum and Farnese Gardens”
- 1826 – “Bridge to Narni”
- 1834 – “Morning in Venice”
- 1846 – “Forest of Fontainebleau”
- 1850 – “Reading Girl in Red”
- 1850 – “Morning. Dance of the nymphs”
- 1857 – “Village Concert”
- 1861 – “Orpheus and Eurydice”
- 1865 – “Letter”
- 1866 – “Agostina”
- 1870 – “Woman Reading”
- 1872 – “Memory of Corborne”
- 1874 – “Diana’s Bath”