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Overview
Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot (1796-1875) is a very big name in a very distinguished century for French art. Though best-known as a landscape painter, he was also no mean printmaker.Known for bridging the Neoclassical tradition of allegory set in nature with Realism and plein air (on the spot) practice, Corot embarked on his artistic career by studying landscape painting. Although he initially struggled to gain acceptance in the establishment, he flourished as a landscapist, benefiting from multiple trips around Europe, especially Italy. Later he focussed on the Barbizon area, near Fontainebleau, hence the name 'The Barbizon School'. His early oil sketches, painted outdoors and characterized by their bright colors, fluid brushstrokes, and prioritisation of the expression of mood and atmosphere over topographical details, greatly influenced the Impressionists. Camille Pissarro and Auguste Renoir were both great admirers. In addition to poetic landscapes he painted portraits, and, seeking greater recognition at the Paris Salon, biblical and mythological scenes, which were considered the highest form of painting. Despite only moderate success in the Salon, his body of work earned accolades from the influential poet and critic Charles Baudelaire and fellow artists such as Eugene Delacroix - and later the Impressionists. In a 'progressive' account of art history, it could be said that Pissarro takes on where Corot leaves off, particularly in this etching. But such a thesis is in danger of playing down the intense, lumimous, atmospheric, often melancholic quality of his work which should be appreciated for its own sake.
Corot's formative studies in Italy would leave a permanent mark on his printmaking; years later, these reminiscences would again resurface, as in this remarkable large etching, his second contribution to the Societe des Aquafortistes, published by Cadart & Luquet, Paris, in 1866. As quintessentially French as he was, almost half of Corot's etchings are of Italian views. This one, of an unidentified location in the Roman Campagna, exemplifies his painterly-style depiction of trees, light, a distant structure and, particularly, a time of day.
See:
Artsy, https://www.artsy.net/artwork/jean-baptiste-camille-corot-souvenir-of-tuscany-souvenir-de-toscane
'Prints and Principles', http://www.printsandprinciples.com/2013/05/repoussoir-elements-corot-van-blerk-and.html
Dr Mark Stocker Curator, Historical International Art April 2018