Étang à Ville-d’Avray (late 1860s)

Corot, Jean-Baptiste-Camille (1796-1875)

Étang à Ville-d’Avray (Pond at Ville-d’Avray)
late 1860s
Oil on fabric, 58.1 x 99.4 cm
Cleveland Museum of ArtCleveland

The dreamlike quality of the painting reflects Corot’s desire to reproduce the “first Impression” of the landscape. Corot painted this view of a pond near his home at Ville d’Avray, just west of Paris, in his late style distinguished by soft, hazy forms and gentle, silvery light. Such paintings merge his lifelong study of nature with nostalgic memories and contrast sharply with the more formal compositions and precisely rendered shapes of his early landscapes. Corot‘s devotion to the direct study of nature was a major influence on the Impressionists. (CMA)

See also:

• Ville d’Avray (France)