Jean Baptiste Camille Corot (Paris 1796-1875)

Corot's portraits are among the most private works in the artist's oeuvre. Better known for his eventual influence on the Impressionists' treatment of the effects of light in landscape, Corot also produced engaging portraits that often revealed the artist's youthful nature and obvious affinity for children. He did not require absolute stillness from his subjects; rather, he enjoyed studying them in the context of the subtle changes in posture which occurred naturally during the course of the sitting.

Corot considered painting from the figure to be almost a hobby, an activity separated from his usual routine of painting landscapes. Yet throughout his career, figure painting would occupy more of his time, especially by the 1860s and 1870s, a period when he created his largest body of work. Despite the fact that he was widely exhibiting his landscapes during this time, his staunch refusal to present the figure pictures to the public is evidence enough to assume that they held a personal significance for him. It is believed that Corot showed these paintings only to his dearest friends and colleagues, retrieving them from a locked cabinet in his studio whenever he received a visitor. It was not until a retrospective of the artist's work was held in 1875 that the public was made aware of the beauty of his figure pictures.

Nothing is known of the sitter in the present work, though Corot's treatment of his subject is typical of his early portraits. She is wide-eyed yet confident, full of personality and rendered in sharply contrasting shades of light and dark.

We are grateful to Martin Dieterle and Claire Lebeau for confirming the authenticity of this work.