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Dense green vegetation surrounds a band of sun-dappled boulders that arc shallowly across this horizontal landscape painting. Just to our left of center and on our side of the boulders are several slender tree trunks. The area beyond the boulders is a haze of loosely painted moss and pine green. The tree trunks and rocks are painted in tones of sable, peanut, sand, and dark brown. The artist signed the lower left, “COROT.”

Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot

Rocks in the Forest of Fontainebleau, 1860/1865

West Building, Ground Floor — Gallery G21

Medium

oil on canvas

Dimensions

overall: 46 x 59 cm (18 1/8 x 23 1/4 in.)

framed: 65.4 x 78.7 cm (25 3/4 x 31 in.)

Credit Line

Chester Dale Collection

Accession Number

1963.10.110

Artists / Makers

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

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
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Inscription

lower left: COROT

Provenance

Given by the artist to Mme Camille Cornelie Isbert [1825-1911], Paris.[1] Paul Tesse, Paris, by 1881.[2] Alfred Robaut [1830-1909], Paris, before 1905.[3] (sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 12 June 1930, no. 28); purchased by (Etienne Bignou, Paris) for Chester Dale [1883-1962], New York;[4] bequest 1963 to NGA.

[1] According to Alfred Robaut, L'oeuvre de Corot, Paris, 1905: III:26, no. 1313, the NGA painting was offered for sale by Corot to Mme. Isbert, a miniaturist.

[2] According to Robaut 1905 (see no. 1), and Chester Dale papers in NGA curatorial records, the painting was lent by Tesse to an exhibition in Lille 1881.

[3] The painting was not, however, in the sale of the Robaut collection, Paris, Hôtel Drouot, 28 November 1919, which included another, considerably smaller (23 x 31.5 cm) sketch, no. 6, Dans la forêt de Fontainebleau.

[4] According to Chester Dale papers in NGA curatorial records, the painting was acquired at the 12 June 1930 sale at Hôtel Drouot.

Associated Names

Bignou, Etienne
Dale, Chester
Drouot, Hôtel
Isbert, Camille-Cornélie
Robaut, Alfred
Tesse, Paul

Exhibition History

1881: Exposition, Lille, 1881.

1930: Eighth Loan Exhibition. Corot Daumier, Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1930, no. 9.

1931: Renoir and his Tradition, Museum of French Art, New York, 1931, no. 8.

1965: The Chester Dale Bequest, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1965, unnumbered checklist.

2008: In the Forest of Fontainebleau: Painters and Photographers from Corot to Monet, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 2008, no. 58.

Bibliography

1905: Robaut, Alfred, and Etienne Moreau-Nélaton. L'Oeuvre de Corot. Catalogue raisonné et illustré. 5 vols. Paris, 1905: 3:no. 1313, as Fontainebleau, rocher dans l'ombre sous la feuille.

1942: French Paintings from the Chester Dale Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 22, repro.

1944: French Paintings from the Chester Dale Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1944: 22, repro.

1953: French Paintings from the Chester Dale Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1953: 30, repro.

1965: Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century Paintings & Sculpture of the French School in the Chester Dale Collection, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 39, repro.

1965: Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 31.

1969: Durbe, Dario and Maris Damigella. La Scuolo di Barbizon. Milan, 1969: 52, pl. 26.

1972: Hours, Madeleine. Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot. New York, 1972: 48, fig. 54

1973: Bouret, Jean. The Barbizon School. Greenwich, Connecticut, 1973: 81, repro. (French ed.: Neuchâtel, 1972)

1975: European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 78, repro.

1984: Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 432, no. 619, color repro.

1985: European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 98, repro.

2000: Eitner, Lorenz. French Paintings of the Nineteenth Century, Part I: Before Impressionism. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 2000: 51-54, color repro.