Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot

Estate of the artist

Hotel Drouot, Paris, 26-28 May 1875, lot 58 (consigned by the above)

Collection Chamouillet (acquired at the above sale)

Jules Paton, France

Hotel Drouot, Paris, 24 April 1883, lot 44 (consigned by the above)

Private Collection, Paris

Sotheby’s, New York, 23 October 1997, lot 29 (consigned by the above)

Acquired from the above by the present owner

Alfred Robaut, L'Oeuvre de Corot: catalogue raisonné et illustré, vol. II, Paris 1905, pp. 102-103, no. 289, illustrated

Infused with mauve, purple, and moody blues, this nearly square composition by Camille Corot feels to modern viewers more like John Singer Sargent’s luminous Moroccan views or Giorgio Morandi’s tranquil still lifes.

This work, dating from 1832, is a remarkably intimate portrait of the courtyard of the Corots’ home in Ville d’Avray. The house, at 3, rue du Lac, which dates from the eighteenth century, was bought by Corot’s father in 1817 upon retiring. Corot occupied a very small room on the third floor with two windows overlooking the lake until his death. The small door at the center of our picture gave access to the ponds. On the left is the peristyle over the entrance to the living quarters; the woman outside may well be Corot’s mother.

Ville d’Avray and the surrounding countryside were the inspiration for numerous works, including the first painting Corot made on returning from Italy in 1828. Corot liked to paint by the ponds, but often went out of his way to work along the many small roads that radiated out beyond his parents’ property.