Home Online catalogues True to Nature. Open-air Painting 1780-1870 66. Camille Corot Paris 1796 – 1875 Paris The Island and Bridge of San Bartolomeo, Rome, 1825-1828 A pivotal figure in the history of plein air painting, Corot influenced several generations of landscape painters during his lifetime and, already in 1845, was placed by Baudelaire “at the head of the modern school of landscape.” Corot never attended the École des Beaux-Arts, but was encouraged by his lessons with Michallon and Bertin to paint out-of- doors. He undertook the journey to Rome at his own expense, and the oil sketches and small finished pictures made during his first Italian sojourn in 1825-28 are among his most celebrated achievements. This view of the island of San Bartolomeo is one of the canonical works from this trip. The motif is made all the more monumental by the low viewpoint selected by Corot, who must have painted it from a boat anchored on the northern bank of the Tiber. Despite the limited palette, the artist’s sensitivity to light and shade creates a complex interplay of surfaces, balanced harmoniously between the murky waters of the river and the bright summer sky. Of remarkable modernity, the solidity of form and strong sense of geometry anticipate the developments of Cézanne and Cubism.
A pivotal figure in the history of plein air painting, Corot influenced several generations of landscape painters during his lifetime and, already in 1845, was placed by Baudelaire “at the head of the modern school of landscape.” Corot never attended the École des Beaux-Arts, but was encouraged by his lessons with Michallon and Bertin to paint out-of- doors. He undertook the journey to Rome at his own expense, and the oil sketches and small finished pictures made during his first Italian sojourn in 1825-28 are among his most celebrated achievements. This view of the island of San Bartolomeo is one of the canonical works from this trip. The motif is made all the more monumental by the low viewpoint selected by Corot, who must have painted it from a boat anchored on the northern bank of the Tiber. Despite the limited palette, the artist’s sensitivity to light and shade creates a complex interplay of surfaces, balanced harmoniously between the murky waters of the river and the bright summer sky. Of remarkable modernity, the solidity of form and strong sense of geometry anticipate the developments of Cézanne and Cubism.