Patrick Bade
Corot and Barbizon

Patrick Bade | Corot and Barbizon | 06.29.21

- So, Patrick, what are you doing in Paris, during the day?

• In the day, I’m going to my first opera, tomorrow night, which is really exciting. I have lunches with my friend, at my favourite restaurant.

• [Wendy] Right.

• And, yeah, there’s plenty to do, I mean, going for walks and walking along the Seine, going to the flea markets, at the weekend, going to Amicorum, I go there, you know, a couple of times a week, to see, what’s coming into the gallery.

• And everything’s open, during the day?

• Yeah, everything’s open. Life is, really, pretty normal, yeah.

• Wow, fabulous, good, good.

• Just this last week, I mean, here, it was absolutely mandatory, that everybody had to wear a mask, out of doors, all the time, but they dropped that, in the last week, which is good, ‘cause, it’s much more pleasant, walking around, without a mask.

• And, there’s no problem going from London to Paris?

• Yes, there would be. There would be a problem, because of the Delta variant, they’re now being much more strict, so I was very lucky, I got here, in the nick of time.

• Right, okay, that is very lucky. Well, it’s very stressful this, honestly.

• [Patrick] It is, yeah. Very, very. So how, so, will you be able to go back to London?

• Well, I’m waiting, I mean, I have to wait here anyway, 'till I get my, 'till they send me my, you know,

• [Wendy] Right. which is my residency card.

• Right.

• So, that’s probably another month, before I get that.

• Gosh, okay, good, Well, you love Paris and enjoy it!

• I am, I am, believe me.

• And, thank you for all your tips. So, I think, I must hand over to you, now, because I’m just looking at the clock, I just want to say, good morning to everybody and welcome for joining us. Patrick, today, you’re going to be doing Corot and Barbizon.

• That’s right, yeah.

• Okay, over to you, thank you, very much.

Visuals displayed throughout the presentation.

• Right, well, if you ever get offered, a cut-price Corot, that fell off the back of a lorry, you need to be very, very suspicious. They say, that of the two-thousand oil paintings, he completed in his life, he was a very prolific artist, there are currently five-thousand, circulating in the United States and, in fact, I have an American friend, in Paris, who has one of these fake Corots, that was originally bought, very expensively. He has a reputation, for being the most faked artist, in history and there are various reasons for this. I think one is, that there is the apparent artlessness, in inverted commas, the apparent simplicity of his art, sort of like Constable, people look at these pictures and think, hmm, I could do that and to a certain extent, they can, but, of course, the essential is missing.

The other reasons, I think, why it’s so dodgy, to buy a Corot, that doesn’t have a real, you know, watertight provenance, is that, you know, towards the end of his life, he was immensely, immensely famous, popular, and very, very, widely imitated. So, a lot of the paintings, that later got passed off as Corot’s, they’re not, strictly speaking, fakes, the painting isn’t a fake, they were in his manner and then, unscrupulous dealers, put a fake signature on them. And, the whole thing, was even further complicated, by the fact, that he was a very kindly man, almost simple, really and he was very welcoming and very helpful to young artists and, you know, hard up young artists would come to him, to show him their work and to help them out, he would actually sign their pictures for, for them.

So there are, pictures out there, which are not by Corot, but do have a genuine signature on them. He was very long-lived, well, by the standards of the nineteenth century, I suppose, to get to eighty, was a big deal then, it’s not so big these days and it always surprised me, when I stopped to think, that he was born in the eighteenth century, he was born in seventeen ninety-six, because he lived long enough, to work into the eighteen seventies, alongside the young impressionists who, who seem so much more, more modern. So you have a, an early self-portrait, on the right-hand side and left, a photograph of him, in old age, painting out of doors, plein-air painting, which is a very, very big thing, in the nineteenth century, You have and you can see all the equipment, you need, I mean by, by this time, this would’ve been in the eighteen sixties, when this photograph was taken.

So, you have your collapsible easel and you have your small canvas and you can see his palette, what you can’t see here, or, you can just see at the bottom, the back of a box of paints, but that will be, full of tubes of paint, collapsible metal tubes, like toothpaste tubes. That certainly made the whole business, of painting out of doors, an awful lot easier, but that, Corot did not have that, until, really, the, the last part of his career. It was very cumbersome, taking your paints with you, in bottles or bladders. It was only really from the eighteen forties, onwards, that it became possible, to have a box of paints, in a, a metal tube.

So he was born in Paris, The Rue du Bac, on the left Bank of Paris, into a comfortably off, bourgeois family, his parents owned a very fashionable milliner’s shop and his mother supplied hats, to the smartest woman in Paris. And so, from the age of, of eighteen twenty-two, so, he’s already in his mid twenties, that was the point, that he decided to become an artist, his family were quite supportive. I mean, initially, they wanted him to go into their business, but he, he wasn’t very good at it.

As I said, he was a man of, almost a simpleton, he was, shy, awkward, very, very sweet natured and he was never really going to survive in, in business and he’s, from the age of twenty-two, he was given an annuity, by his family, so that meant, that through the first half of his career, when he wasn’t selling much and when he wasn’t famous, he, he never needed to starve in an attic. Here is another very early self portrait. So he, he, decides, in his mid-twenties, it’s landscape painting, that he wants to do and he studies, briefly, with two landscape specialists, an artist called Achille Michallon and another one, called, Jean Victor Bertin.

But, really, the important influence on him, was their teacher, their teacher, was an artist, called Henri de Valenciennes, who was a, a generation older, he was working in the late eighteenth, into the first years of the nineteenth century and he was working, he was a neoclassical artist, creating these, very idealised landscapes, like the one you, see top left, looking back, to the golden age of classical landscape, French classical landscape, which is in the seventeenth century, so that was the period of Claude and Poussin and it’s, it’s quite formulaic, you, you, this is a very typical example, by Valenciennes.

We have a classical subject, it’s actually Ulysses and Nausicaa and it’s in, an idealised version, of the landscape, of the middle part of Italy and you have a, a very clear spatial setup, really like, a kind of box of space, with framing motifs at, at either end of the picture and then, you have a middle ground and you have, what looks like, a, a backdrop. So, it’s very, very formulaic. But, but what is interesting about Henri de Valenciennes is, there’s another very unexpected side to him and he spent a lot of time, in Italy and he made little, outdoor, oil sketches on the spot, directly from nature, like the one you see, bottom right-hand side and this was something, that a number of artists, began to do, at the end of the eighteenth, beginning of the nineteenth century and was going to be very important, for the practise of Corot.

So, Corot, as I said, long-lived and he’s an artist, who is, is looking back, to the, this classical French landscape, of the seventeenth century, but he’s also looking forward, to the new modern landscape, of the impressionists. So I’ve got, we’ve got three pictures here, top left, very typical Claude landscape, of the story of Narcissus and you’ve got, the same features, that we saw, in that painting by Henri de Valenciennes. You know, you’ve got this very clear, logical explanation, of the, of the space, foreground, middle-ground distance, and the framing motifs, either side, idealised version of the Italian landscape and the, the landscape, it’s not pure landscape, it’s landscape, with a classical narrative. In the middle, we have a painting by, by, Corot, an early painting of, ville d'avray, very typical of his work and on the bottom right-hand corner, we have a painting by Monet.

And as I said, Corot occupies, a kind, of middle ground, looking both, backwards and forwards. So, this is one of his first pictures, this dates from eighteen twenty-two, so he is twenty-six years old and there’s some, it’s, it’s clumsy, very, very clumsy, it’s almost amateur and you, probably, if you just saw that, in a, in the, in the flea market, in Paris, you might not give it a second thought. What I would say about him though, is that the, this naivety, this clumsiness, is actually, I think, an essential part, of his genius. A certain directness, a certain truthfulness and simplicity in his vision. So this is eighteen twenty-two, this is the same year, it’s the north, north coast of France.

He spent a large part of his childhood, at school in Rouen, so he was certainly familiar, with the, the Norman coast and this, is the coast near Dieppe and this, this is, well, a, a surprising picture, really, for eighteen twenty-two. I could probably, get away with persuading you, that it’s an early painting by, by Monet. It, it has this, this kind of freshness, this directness, that is really looking forward, to impressionism and this, we, here again, we are on the north coast, of Normandy, the very picturesque town of, of Honfleur, but rather interestingly, he hasn’t chosen, a particularly, a picturesque view, of that very, very pretty town, course now, an extremely touristic town.

So this again, is looking forward to, to, what, well, Menzel, who I was talking about last time, who can find poetry and interest, in everything that he sees around him. This is, of course, a more touristic view, a very famous view of Paris, this is the old, Bon Saint Michel, which was demolished, later in the nineteenth century. This is the mediaeval bridge and we get, we are looking towards, the Ile de la Cite, but even here it’s, it’s got a kind, this is the before photography, this, this also dates from, eighteen twenty-three, eighteen twenty-four, so photography, is only invented, at the end of the following decade, the end of the eighteen thirties.

But I, I think it’s fascinating, how inventions, great inventions, often come, at precisely, the point, that they’re needed, or wanted and I think, that, that’s certainly true, with the, the paint in the collapsible metal tubes, that they are answered, a need, that, you know, so many artists were wanting, to paint out of doors, to go out into the country and take their paints with them. I always say, that when you go through a museum, a great museum of art and you go through the old masters, in the eighteenth century, you get to the nineteenth century, you can always tell, the point, at which photography was invented, that suddenly, artists start looking at the world, in a different way, 'cause they’ve seen it, through a photographic lens.

But I have to say, this picture, slightly contradicts, what I’ve just told you, because, you know, I, looking at this picture, you think, oh, surely this artist has seen a photograph, because there, it, things aren’t rearranged, in the way, that earlier artists tended to, it’s got a, kind of, naive objectivity, that we associate, with the eye of the, of the camera. Also, here, we’re still in the eighteen twenties, first half of the eighteen twenties, is ville d'avray, a very characteristic work of Corot. He sees the world, in a cool light and that is true, throughout his, his career. He, I think he sees nature, as a, a cool silvery grey green, rather than, certainly not like in, in sort of, brown tones, of earlier, old master paintings of landscape.

But also, not really in the vivid greens of Constable and some later nineteenth century artists. This is a very characteristic composition, he loves these compositions, where you have a road, leading you off into the distance, you feel you can walk down that road, into the picture. A very remarkable little work, I mean, again, if I, if I didn’t know, that this was by Corot, I would really have trouble, saying, who painted this, could, could almost be a Courbet, Who, I’m going to be talking about on, on Sunday, it’s very, densely, heavily painted, you can really, even in this illustration, you sense, the sort of, sticky, dense, matter of the paint and this is, has all the hallmarks, of a little picture, painted, out of doors, on the spot, it’s a direct transcription, of what the eye sees and as I said, there are a lot of artists, beginning to do this.

Constable had been doing it, this is a painting of the mid-twenties, Constable had been, Constable had been doing it, for about fifteen years, it’s what he, he did, he spent the summer, spring and the summer, in, on Hampstead Heath, or in the countryside, making little sketches, very similar to this actually and then gathering them together, to bring back to his studio, in London, in the winter. This is a painting, also the twenties, of the forest of Fontainebleau, very picturesque area close to, to Paris and as we shall see, the forest of Fontainebleau and the village of Barbizon in that forest, were to be, very important, for the development of French landscape in, in the nineteenth century.

So, we don’t, pictures like these, we don’t feel, that the artist is trying to improve, or rearrange nature, he, he is just trying to get down, what he sees. So certainly, I think the example of Constable, came at exactly, the right time, this picture, was shown at the Paris salon, in eighteen twenty-four, it caused an absolute sensation, it won a gold medal. I’ve talked about it before, how, Delacroix was thrilled by it and wrote about it, in his diary. One of the things Delacroix said about it, was, he was very impressed, by the intensity and the variety of greens, that, you know, there’s, yellow-green, there’s blue-greens, silver-green, emerald-green, all different kinds of greens.

And, it, it has, this is certainly a picture, that was not painted out of doors, it was painted in his studio, in Charlotte Street, in London, over the winter, based on little sketches, that, that Constable had made, on the spot, in Constable country, his, his family owned all the land, you see, in, in this, in this picture and we know, from the sketches, that Constable did rearrange things, to make, what looked like, a more, to him, a more, satisfactory composition, but the painting, was a, a real sensation in France, because the French landscape tradition, that neoclassical landscape tradition, was incredibly smooth and bland, it had a very, very licked surface and Constable liked to say, that, if you want to paint nature, convincingly, you have to acknowledge, that nothing in nature stands still.

And, that sense of life and movement and energy, burgeoning nature, those things that, if you remember that, that wonderful quote, of Philipp Otto Runge, that I gave you, last time, you know, about everything shimmering and, and moving and, and throwing himself on the ground and being part of this vibrant, alive thing, of nature. This, I think this is, one, one gets a very strong feeling, from this picture, of course, it’s difficult for, for English people, I think, to see this picture, because we are so familiar with it.

We, we all grew up with it, it was in dentists waiting rooms and school, on the wall, in school rooms and on Christmas cards and chocolate boxes and so on, it’s, I think it’s quite hard for us, to get the, how exciting it was and how new and how fresh in, in the eighteen twenties and certainly, it’s one of the rare, rare times, that a British artist, has exerted a powerful influence on continental art and particularly on, on French art. For the next generation, Constable was really, a major influence, I would say, on French landscape painting.

So, this is another little sketch, made by Corot, in the Forest of Fontainebleau, very, very rapid, just, you know, it’s, it’s not an impressionist palette of colours, of course, but in the, in the sense, that he’s just trying to put down, his visual sensation, very quickly, it’s almost, an impressionist painting, but it’s also, well, this, this is Constable, so Corot, Constable, you can see that, because they’re doing the same method, of working on a small canvas, or panel, very quickly, very spontaneously, out of doors, before nature, they come up, really, with a very similar result.

Now, as he certainly, in France, the, the, adherence to the classical tradition, is very, very strong, in all aspects of French culture, Remember that, you know, it was Gaul, was the first great and most important French Roman colony and so, the classical tradition, has this huge, huge respect and authority and influence in France far, far greater, than, than in Britain, for example. And so, it was, for any French landscape painter, it was absolutely necessary, to go to Rome, for a formative part, of their early career.

Now, what most artists wanted to do, of course, was win, the Prix de Rome, so, you, if you were a student, at the Ecole des Beaux Arts, in, in Paris, you enter the, the competition, every year and if you won that competition, you were sent and that was not just painters, it was writers, musicians, Debussy won the Prix de Rome, for instance, so there was, you know, always a big colony, of French artists, musicians, intellectuals, in Rome. With his very late start and his lack of obvious facility and skill, there was no way that Corot, was going to win the Prix de Rome, so it had to be self-financed and he goes off there and he spends a couple of years in Rome and some of his most famous, most loved, most wonderful pictures, date from this time and these are, again, at this point, of course, he’s, he’s not yet exhibiting, he’s very much learning, even though he’s, he celebrates his thirtieth birthday, in Rome.

He’s still, very much, an apprentice, very much learning and gathering material, for later use and he makes lots and lots and lots of these studies, again, this is a picture that has, although, there’s something, maybe a little bit artificial, about the placing and the depiction of the tree, on the right-hand side, it’s a little bit packed, you know, that framing motif, but the, the rest of the picture, looks very much, again, like the Colosseum, from the Farnese Gardens, very much, observed from reality, as does this little picture, of a view, towards St. Peters and you can see him here, responding also, to the intensity of Italian light, which initially, bothered him. He says that, is a quote from, he said, the sun gives off a light, that that reduces me to despair, I feel the utter powerlessness of my palette, to recreate it.

I think he does, this does actually give you, quite a, this is the, a, a depiction, of the ruins of the Temple of Minerva Medica, but so a tourist subject, I suppose, but it’s a very cool, objective observation of this ruin, he doesn’t make it look picturesque, he doesn’t prettify it, in, in any way. And I would say, the same of this view, of the, the ruins of the Colosseum. So many of these, as I said, very famous, very delightful pictures. Now, I mentioned, Henri de Valenciennes, who as early as the seventeen eighties, was painting, these, fresh, plein-air, little, oil sketches, in Italy, he wasn’t the only one.

So I’m, I’m going to mention here, an artist, I think it’s highly unlikely, that Corot, ever came across him or knew anything about him, but he’s almost freakish, in his anticipation of Corot’s approach. This is a Welsh artist called, Thomas Jones and he had a respectable career, painting pictures, like the one you see, bottom, right-hand side, totally conventional sub-Claude, you know, the golden light, the, the trees, that don’t really look like, they’ve ever, you know, been observed from a real tree, the, the explanation of the recession, into space, the hazy distance, the, the rather forced poetry, very, very conventional, very banal, not very interesting.

Those are the pictures that, that he, his reputation, was based on and that he exhibited, at the Royal Academy in London and so on. But, at the same time, amazingly, he was painting, little, oil sketches, like this one, on the left hand-side, of a, a crumbling wall, of a, of a very poor house, with the washing, hanging out to dry, on the balcony, fantastically timeless. Actually, it’s amazing to think, that that was painted, by a Welsh artist in Italy, in the, in the seventeen eighties. It could easily be, a twentieth century painting and this is a another painting, by Thomas Jones.

And again, a reminder, of, very similar in style, same approach, but this, time it’s Henri de Valenciennes, again, a picture painted back in the seventeen eighties. So, Corot is very happy in Rome and he travels around, to the, the spectacular, picturesque, countryside, around Rome, that had provided subject matter, for artists, going back to the Renaissance. lots of eighteenth century artists went and painted these kind of subjects.

This is the cascade at Terni, this dates from eighteen twenty-six and more of the same and this, is one of the most famous pictures, of his Italian stay of eighteen twenty-six and this is The Bridge at Narni and he, this, this is what he painted, on the spot, from, from nature, but this time, he tarts it up, repaints it, in the studio, to send it to the salon and this is the result and Canadian listeners, will probably know this, 'cause it’s in National Gallery, of Canada. Kenneth Clark, in his excellent and very stimulating, book on landscape, which I recommend, is, is, very rude about this picture.

He, I mean, he, he loves the sketch, but he thinks, that this is completely fake and, and false and uninteresting and you can make the comparison, between the two here. And I, you know, I think to to, to modern taste, to twentieth century taste, of course, we tend to like the sketch, more than the finished work. This goes back to France, there, here we are, eighteen-thirty, painting, Chartres Cathedral, gothic architecture, so beloved of the romantics, but this is a, resolutely, unromantic view, of Chartres Cathedral, with the building blocks, in the foreground and he certainly doesn’t do, anything at all, to tart it up, or try to make it more interesting, or mysterious. A world away, of course from, from Caspar David Friedrich.

So, he’s trying to exhibit at the salon, initially, without much success, this is his first, really notable success, at the salon of eighteen thirty-five, it’s a biblical subject, Hagar in the wilderness, awful story from the, the Bible, always thought, that was one of the more depressing, unpleasant stories, in the Bible. But, and so, this was what the critics and the art-lovers and the esthys, they, they weren’t, they certainly weren’t interested, in those little, spontaneous sketches, well, they probably never saw them, 'cause he didn’t exhibit them. But this, this was more what they wanted and he does actually for, for most of the rest of his career, he’s sending, quite elaborate subject pictures, like this, to every salon.

These are not the pictures, of course, that we, you tend to see, illustrated by him, today. So, this is, of course, a very classical landscape. But he, he’s, also interested, in Dutch painting and this is a painting he made, again in the eighteen thirties, of the forest of Fontainebleau and this one too, also the forest of Fontainebleau and this will make you think of, Dutch seventeenth century artists, like Ruisdael. So, he’s quite eclectic, he’s looking around and he’s drawing from different traditions. So, this one is from the eighteen-forties, forest of Fontainebleau and this brings me to the, the so called Fontainebleau school, or, Barbizon school, rather, which, he becomes associated with, a group of artists, who were, half a generation, or even a generation, younger than him.

This is Theodore Rousseau, who’s born in eighteen-twelve, so, he’s pretty well, a generation younger and he was, he really struggled, whereas Corot, at least a certain aspect of his work, was liked, by the critics and the pictures were selling, year, after year, after year, until the end of the eighteen forties, Rousseau’s pictures, were regularly rejected at the salon, he had very little success and you think, well, why, what was, what was so objectionable, in these pictures? I think it’s because, the classical tradition, was so deeply ingrained in French tastes, that these looked coarse and uncomfortably real. And as I said, he’s looking to Dutch painting, well I, I am a little bit mystified by it, 'cause people were certainly, they, they, you know, French collectors, French museums, collected the seventeenth century Dutch paintings and liked them.

This is a Hobbema, seventeenth century Dutch artist, top left and a Theodore Rousseau, bottom right. Rousseau, I think, actually far more, Corot always has this, a certain coolness, a certain detached vision, Rousseau is, is a more passionate artist and an artist with, I think, quite a strong vein of romanticism, for an, a taste, for more dramatic aspects of nature, like this very fiery sunset and with, with Rousseau, you could, occasionally, also make some comparisons, with Caspar David Friedrich, Friedrich, top left, Rousseau, this central placing of the tree, in the composition, the tree, almost becoming something monumental and heroic and this, is the sort of thing, critics really hated and it was, not this particular one, but one that he sent for exhibition, was dismissed, as looking like, a soup of weeds.

And now, the other artist, who, with whom Corot, actually formed, a very deep friendship, was Charles-Francois Daubigny, born in eighteen seventeen, so he’s, he’s another artist, who’s a central figure, of the Barbizon school and he’s also, I’d say, very much, a link figure. He, he, with the impressionists, there are certain works by, by Daubigny, very boldly painted, freely, you know, without a high degree of finish, that looked forward, very much, to the impressionists and when the impressionist came along, he was actually, one of their great supporters. I mean, a painting like this, this is Daubigny, very similar, really, to early paintings, by, Pissarro, Sisley and Monet and here again, with this picture, I think you’ve got, you’re getting closer, to the impressionist depiction of light, it has an extraordinary luminosity to it.

And Daubigny, yes, as I said, Daubigny, became a great friend of Corot, Corot, late in life, he was a bachelor, he lived in Paris, about ten minutes walk, from where I am now, on the Rue Poissonniere and it, he always very generous, always helping other artists and he actually bought a house for Daubigny, at Auvers and, Van Gogh painted the garden of Daubigny, twice and he wrote this letter about it, in the very last weeks of his life, you can see there, Le Jardin de Daubigny. So, Corot, I think, another problem with Corot, is that he was very over productive and probably, not very self-critical. I mean, there are, at the end of his life, he was still, he didn’t totally go off. I mean, there are, there are, in fact, not at all, when, when I’m going to get, in a minute, to his figure pictures, studio pictures, which can be wonderful, later on.

But, I think, the landscape, I think, it’s very hard, the impressionists found this later, once you go past early adulthood, into middle age, to keep up that freshness, of response to nature. This is a painting of the eighteen fifties and I, to my mind, that it, it does, still have a fresh, an attractive appeal, this, this is one of his, most famous late works, the, the bridge at Mantes and again, I think, it’s very beautiful, very poetic, you know, this typical, Corot, silvery, gray-silvery tonality, that, like constable, he likes to put, one little patch, of red and that, and that, can really, bring the whole thing to life, enliven the whole picture. But, there are too many pictures like this.

I mean, he was turning them out, sending them to the salon, there were immensely, immensely popular, sort of, very, he has now, I think in pictures, like this, become very formulaic, this, this, kind of, fluffy depiction of trees and, and foliage and you don’t really feel, that anything’s been very closely observed, from reality. Here’s another example and, and pandering, really, to the bourgeois, slightly kitschy bourgeois taste, of the French at the time, putting in sexy nymphs and sometimes, doing religious subjects, like the, the finding, of the body of St. Sebastian, on the right-hand side and again, the sort of, one of these, fluffy landscapes, full of not, very well drawn, nymphs. I mean these, I think these pictures, have actually done, quite a lot of harm, to his reputation.

But I want to, I’m going to finish, by looking at two aspects of his work. First of all, his paintings of figures and portraits and then, I’m going to look at his influence and his legacy. And so, this is a, a painting, he made, during his Italian stay, in the eighteen twenties, of an Italian peasant woman and it has a, a clumsiness, a naivety, which I think, which actually, I think is very appealing. You know, almost any well-trained artists, who’d been through the, you know, the mill, the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, and learned how to draw properly, would’ve made a much slicker job, of drawing, or painting, this peasant woman, the same, with this painting of a little peasant boy, rather interestingly, he seems to have signed it, through the wet paint, with something sharp, inscription on the paint, showing that it was all done, very quickly, in one go.

As a portraitist, he mainly painted people, that he knew, members of his family. This is his niece, Claire Sennegon, this was painted, in eighteen, thirty-seven. I think these portraits are, utterly, utterly, delightful. They have, I said the, the slight clumsiness, the slight naivety is very, very much, part of their appeal. Of course, what he’s got in mind, is Ingres, here’s Ingres, on the right-hand side, Mademoiselle Riviere. What Ingres had, sort of, cornered the market, for very expensive portraits, of the aristocracy and the grand bourgeoisie, there was no way, that Corot, was ever going to compete, with Ingres, or any of those, much slicker, academically-trained artists. But, I think, again, to, to modernise, well, I’ll be interested to hear, what your responses are, they can seem, a lot more appealing, more truthful, more charming.

Again, a comparison, this is his great niece, on the left-hand side, the daughter of the woman, you’ve just seen, painted in the eighteen thirties and you, you’ve got an Ingres, for comparison, on the right-hand side, course, brilliant and amazing, Ingres is fantastic, but a, a, kind of dazzling skill, in the Ingres, which you don’t get with Corot. He’s certainly interested in Ingres, also for his nudes. He didn’t paint, a great many nudes. This one on the right-hand side, I think, seen from the back, with this, these amazing contours, these amazing lines, very much, indebted, to the Grande Odalisque, that he would’ve been familiar with, cause it was in the, in the louvre. And, on the subject of children, I talked a bit about that, last time, I think he’s also, one of those, I think he’s a wonderful painter, of children and these, are mostly children or family, or, or, friends.

And I think, one of the reasons, I particularly like, his portraits, is, and his figurative paintings, is that they, they really, free him, to, to, show his wonderful sense of colour. He’s got a fantastic ability, to make colour sing. I mean, all the way through his work in, in the best landscapes, as well, there is this sense, of extraordinary harmony, of, you know, the, the combination of colours, the, the eternal values. I mean, it’s something I, I think it’s a rare gift, it’s a wonderful gift. It’s a gift that I completely lack, when I’m painting, I admire it, very much, in, in artists, who, who have it.

Actually, I would say my sister has it. She’s, she’s, when she makes her dolls, some of which, I’ll show you, probably, in a week or two, she, the way she combines the colours, with the clothes, it’s almost, Corot like. I think it’s a, it’s an instinct, that only certain artists have. Two, these are two little boys, from Corot’s family and this, very sweet, little girl. Again, he, as I said, he can, the combination of the tones and the colour are something, so instinctive and so right, you almost feel, it’s absolutely right. And, this is a painting of his mother, to whom he was, extremely devoted and we can date this, again, from the leg-of-mutton sleeves, to the eighteen thirties and this was a commissioned painting, of, The Mother Superior of the Convent and I mean, how he makes that red sing and look at, the little blue ribbon and the combination, that, that pale blue and intense red, how exactly right he is, it’s like, You know, he’s, he’s just one of those artists, who’s, who’s got it, for colour.

Here, I’m making a comparison, with the, Vermeer, Girl with the Pearl Earring. Now, the painting on the left, dates, well it’s got a date on it, but the date, some, some critics read it as eighteen fifty and some read it as eighteen fifty-nine and to me, it has a, a very, Vermeer light quality, to it, the, the luminosity and this very cool vision, but it, it’s unlikely, in fact, that it’s a case of direct influence. Vermeer was totally forgotten, after his death and he was only rediscovered, by a French critic, called, Thore-Burger, who published a book and a Catalogue raisonee, in the eighteen sixties, that drew everybody’s attention to Vermeer and Vermeer, suddenly, kind of, became famous, hit the spot.

But it’s another case, of what I was talking about earlier, that the rediscovery of Vermeer, came at a point, where people were very interested, in everything that, that Vermeer represented. It’s not a coincidence, that Vermeer suddenly became noticed and famous, in the eighteen sixties. So, although, I’m making a comparison here, I’m not saying, 'cause I don’t think one can, that he knew Vermeer, when he painted this picture, on the other hand, when he painted this picture, which dates, from the mid to late eighteen sixties, I think he, he almost certainly did know Vermeer and was responding to him and he painted, these are amongst, his very best, late paintings, paintings of young girls.

It’s seated in his studio and again, wonderful, almost Vermeer like, kind of composition, you know, with the, with this, this pattern of rectangles and, and straight lines and so on, the picture within the picture, the, the musical instrument, I mean, here, this is Vermeer, on the right-hand side, Corot on the left hand side and the, the connection here seems, to me, so strong, that I feel sure, that he actually did know Vermeer, at this point. He wasn’t, Vermeer wasn’t the only old master, he was looking at, he, he used to say, that his favourite painter, of all, was Leonardo da Vinci and this portrait of a young woman, well the, the posing of the hands and this soft sfumato, very obviously indebted to Leonardo.

Now, I’m going to finish, briefly, by talking about, his influence, a very, very powerful influence, on the early work of the impressionists, their are paintings by Sisley and Monet and Pissaro, that have this silvery tonality, of Corot and quite a number of them, use the, a Corot like, composition, where you have the, the road, leading you off, into the distance. This is Corot, top left, Monet, bottom right, here we have, Pissarro, top left and Pissarro also had, quite, quite, close, personal connections, with Corot, went to visit him. He was very, very open, to younger artists. Corot, bottom right.

This is, this is the letter, that was found on Van Gogh, after he shot himself, or was shot, I know that’s become disputed, but I think, it’s likely that he shot himself and it’s a, draught, suicide letter, to his brother, Theo and there’s a rather touching, you know, it’s actually, I think, a declaration of love, devotion and gratitude, to his brother, Theo and one of the things, he says, in this letter, is, I’ve always thought of you, as more than just a dealer in Corots. And, once we get into the twentieth century, as I said, I think, a lot of those, fuzzy late landscapes, had done Corot’s reputation, certain amounts of harm.

But people, especially the earlier, little sketches, made directly out of doors, came to be highly regarded, but also, his paintings of these girls, with musical instruments, seated in his studio, became something of a cult, for the early twentieth century avant garde. And this, is Juan Gris, a Catalan cubist, his, it’s a cubist version, of Corot. This is Braque, doing something, the same and, finally Picasso and I think, those are my final images, yes.

So, I’m going to come out or and see what questions we have.

Q&A and Comments

Uh, Q and A. Yes, how’s the weather in Paris? Not that great, It’s grey and a bit drizzly.

Hillary Clive, thank you, thank you, for your kind comment.

Observations about Corot, anticipating photography. Yeah, I think, in his best work, I agree with you, he is, the best work of Corot, is really timeless. Painting what you see, not rearranging, but very selective, on where to train your eye and see, well that would be, you could say, a good photographer, that’s should, should have those qualities, shouldn’t they, how to, what to look at, how to look.

Q: Did Constable’s sketches survive? A: Yes, yes they did. I mean, he obviously, this is very interesting, it’s like the Turner sketches, obviously, Constable thought, that they were worth preserving and that they were important. He didn’t, they, they were never exhibited, in his lifetime and the, the best place to see them, is, in the Victoria and Albert Museum, there, there are, two rooms. It was his nieces, who inherited those sketches and so, the largest collection of them, anywhere, is in the Victoria and Albert Museum. The Tate has some and there are various other museums, around the world, that have them.

Expand on your observation, of the way art is prescient of change. Ooh, I mean, that’s almost a whole talk, really. It is, I mean, there are so many things, one could say there, you know, also the way, you know, there are all those paintings, very apocalyptic paintings, that various artists were painting, just before the outbreak of the first world war. I mean they, did they, do artists, sometimes, have incredible antennae? Can they sense things, unconsciously, that other people cannot sense? But, but I think my point, was more about, you know, inventions, not necessarily, being totally coincidental, that, that the invention can be the answer, to a need.

Q: Was Cezanne inspired by Corot? A: Yes, I think he was, I think he was probably, he certainly was, but I think, he was probably more inspired by Courbet, who, I’ll be talking about, next time.

Talking about Corot figures, I don’t really, see what you describe, as clumsy. Well, I, well, I, those, the first, those Italian ones, to me, really do, look quite clumsy, but I’m not using that, really, as a, as a criticism, to me, it’s part of his truthfulness, part of, what makes the paintings, I mean, you, you could, there’s a, an absence, maybe, rather than saying, clumsy, there’s an absence of slickness and obvious, academic learned, mechanical skill, maybe that’s a better way to put it.

His portraits of children, somehow remind sweet and naive, early American portraits. Yeah, I can see that, I can see that.

Thank you, for all your very nice things, I do appreciate them. You know, it’s really quite hard, one thing, I find hard about this, I used to love teaching, at the London Jewish Cultural Centre, because I, I could see the faces and I knew exactly, what people were thinking and it was a fantastic inspiration, to me. The one thing, I find hard, about giving these lectures, is that, in a, you are kind of lecturing, to a void, you don’t really know, what, what people’s reactions are. So, it is very heartening and very encouraging, to get nice comments like this.

Q: Would Corot and others, have used old-fashioned paint, in the studio? A: No, I think, once those tubes came along, they were just, hey were just using the, the tubes, that was the, the, you know, the easy way to do it.

Courbet and Corot, they must have known each other, personally. Yes, they must have done.

Somebody saying, I love the Corot portraits. Yeah, I, actually, you know, I actually respond more, to the portraits and the figure paintings, even though, I describe them as clumsy, than I do, to the landscapes.

Q: Was there not much plein air painting, before the metal tubes? A: There are, odd examples, even in the seventeenth century, I mean, I think that the two, the little Velazquez paintings, of the gardens, in Rome, to me, look like, they were painted, out of doors. So, no, and there’s a lot of it going on, in the, even Turner, went through a phase, round about eighteen seventy, eighty-eight, when he did lots of plein air paintings, although, he gave up the practise and Constable of course. So yes, it’s happening, it’s just that, it makes it much, much more easy and many more people are doing it, once you’ve got the metal tubes.

Q: What defines the Barbizon School? A: Well, I suppose, it’s artists who lived and worked, in, in the Barbizon area, it’s a landscape school, I mean, it’s a little bit woolly, actually, because Miel, who, I’m going to be talking about, next week, actually lived at Barbizon, so he’s part of the Barbizon School, from that point of view. But stylistically, in subject matter, he’s somewhat apart, so Barbizon school, is really, it’s a school of landscape painters, who are based on, in Barbizon, who were more directly engaged, with nature, they were breaking, with the neoclassicism and moving towards realism. Most, I think that something, those dimensions, I often think, he’s one of those artists, who, that he’s much better, on a smaller scale and, the bigger salon pictures, are, to me are less successful and less attractive.

Thank you again, thank you, Denise, very nice, lovely comments, thank you.

My favourite restaurant, I know, people keep on asking me, it’s La Fresque, F, R, E, S, Q, U, E, had the most fabulous lunch there, yesterday. God, was to die for and then felt very, it was duck, it was the best duck I’ve ever eaten, in my life and then, felt very guilty, looking at cute pictures of ducklings, on YouTube, later on.

Yes, I like that comment, Maxine saying Corot’s work is, is so calming. Well, he certainly, yeah and he does struggle, There is that, that is the clumsiness, isn’t it? He’s not really, terrifically clever, painting hands and feet, but they are, I agree with you, they’re very calm, the best ones, are very calm paintings.

And, somebody’s saying yes, I’m planning to do that, in August, because, Judi’s saying, we we need to lighten up and do some lighthearted lectures. And, I thought I would do one, if Wendy’s happy with it, which will be a tour of my flat, but it will also be, about collecting in Paris.

Q: Were the Paint tubes customised, or stock? A: I think they were, I think they were probably, I think there were stock, actually.

Q: Will you mention, August Riedel? A: 'Cause that’s a very, it’s the only painting, I know, by him, actually, is the Judith and Holofernes and it must have been very famous, 'cause there are, there are several versions of it, I don’t think I, I first of all, you know, I, I don’t think there’s a context, really, when I, where I’d like to, be able to talk, about August Riedel.

Somebody said, always loved Corot’s silvery leaves, on the trees, not sure, why you were so negative about them, can you explain? Yes, I think there’s the, those, as I said, those late paintings, to me, look like, that they’re painted, to a, kind of, formula. it’s very subjective, you are, very, of course, entitled, to a different opinion and in fact, my, I suppose my opinion, is a rather conventional one, maybe it’s time to rethink those late Corots.

Thank you very, all, for your lovely comments.

Q: Am I going to the Salon du Dessin? A: I, I probably, yes, I will, actually, I will go, thank you, very much, for reminding me. It’s very close to me, walking distance, at the Bourse.

Somebody’s, Esther, congratulations, on your, your granddaughter’s prize.

The Tour d'Argent pressed duck, I have eaten, at the Tour d'Argent, many, many years ago, I was invited, by a wealthy Texan student and it was an experience, but I mean, I wouldn’t choose to eat there, it’s not my kind of restaurant. I’d prefer something, a bit more relaxed and informal.

Q: Will you talk, more, about the origins of impressionist art? A: Yes, I mean, I did talk about it, before and I’ll certainly, come back to it, probably in the autumn. I very much liked, I’d like to, 'cause I felt when I last did impressionism, I did it too superficially and too rapidly and I’d like to do it, Wendy’s always saying, slow down, slow down! And, I’d like to slow down and do it at a more leisurely pace.

Alright, Oh, thank you Cheryl, very much, I don’t think I’d want to be knighted, actually, really, La Fresque, La Fresque, if any, if anybody, I have a whole list, of Paris restaurants, although I like La Fresque so much, that I almost never, go anywhere else, if anybody wants my list of, of Paris restaurants, I’m very, very happy to send it to you, with other wonderful restaurants, of course, in Paris.

• Patrick, let’s add that list, to the bottom of one of my emails, that go out for,

• Yeah, I’ll, do that, great, Yeah, next time, otherwise,

• [Judi] Just add it to, everyone’s going to be,

• [Judi] So, everybody, swamping, poor Judi,

• [Judi] can have it. With requests.

• Yeah, so don’t email me, for the list, I will add it to, the email I will send out, on Sunday morning.

• Good, I’ll do that, I’ll do that, yeah. And, I think that’s it, La Fresque.

• That’s it, super.

• [Patrick] Yeah. Thank you, so much, Patrick and thank you, to everybody who joined us, today.

• [Patrick] Good.

• Have a good afternoon and good evening and we’ll see everybody, tomorrow.

• [Patrick] Yep.

• [Judi] Take care everybody, bye-bye.

• Bye-bye!