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Souvenir of Mortefontaine
Camille Corot · Realism & Academic
- Artist
- Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot (1796–1875)
- Date
- 1864
- Dimensions
- 65 x 89 cm
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Location
- Musée du Louvre, Paris, France
Souvenir of Mortefontaine shows a misty lake at dawn, with a great tree on the right and a smaller, leaning one on the left. A woman and two children are gathering flowers or fruit from the slender tree, in a soft, silvery light.
A closer look
The title says it all: this is a memory rather than a view. Corot based it on the park of Mortefontaine north of Paris, but transformed it into a poetic dream, with feathery foliage dissolving in the pale morning haze and the still water reflecting a pearl-grey sky. The figures, small and gentle, are part of the harmony. Emperor Napoleon III bought the painting at the Salon of 1864 for his own collection. Its soft, vaporous atmosphere was admired and widely imitated.
More by Camille Corot
Famous works elsewhere
- The Bridge at Narni 1826
- Femme Lisant 1869
- The road from Sèvres to Paris 1855
- Pastoral Concert 1857