Jean-Baptiste Camille COROT (1796-1875) [FRANCE] - Lot 7

Jean-Baptiste Camille COROT (1796-1875) [FRANCE] Moulineau Farm at Lormes (Nièvre), 1834 Oil on paper mounted on canvas. Signed lower right and signed and dated 1934 lower left. 31 x 42 cm (Two small tears in the paper) Provenance : - Gift from Corot to his niece Marie-Louise Sennegon (1815-1836) wife Baudot, on the date the painting was executed. - In her family since the 19th century. In the spring of 1834, Corot, on his second trip to Italy, stopped off for a few days at Lormes (Morvan), where his niece, Marie-Louise Laure Sennegon, lived on her farm at Moulinot. On April 25, he sent a letter to his friend Abel, in which he described his life in Lormes, noting in particular that "I have two studies on the train. I find the country very convenient. Only the leaves have not yet come, which prevents the sites from showing their full physiognomy (cf. Moreau Nelaton). Corot indicates in this text that these are studies and that the vegetation is still dormant. Corot returned to Lormes several times, notably in 1841 and 1842. He painted around ten pictures of the village, the church and its surroundings. Corot traveled extensively and was accustomed to staying with friends and relatives during his trips to France. Very generous with his hosts, he sometimes offered them paintings: portraits of the host or his children, or views of the house in which the painter was staying. This is the case for our painting, which has remained to this day in the descendants of the Baudot Sennegon family, who have kept the memory of the artist's stays alive. As usual, Corot depicts the farm in its everyday light: a horse-drawn carriage is waiting outside the barn door, the windows and shutters are open, a washerwoman is beating laundry in the stream below. The brushwork is the same as that used for the Italian sketches: fast, light, transparent brushwork from which the light emerges, white impasto for the farmhouse walls, skilful layering of details to create depth. Corot bathes the scene in a soft light that also testifies to his love of the place and its occupants.