Scanned from a transparency, then color corrected by Pat Cagney.

The Roman Campagna in Winter

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

CultureFrench

Dateca. 1830

MediumOil on canvas

DimensionsOverall: 38 1/2 x 53 1/4 in. (97.8 x 135.3 cm)
Overall, Support: 38 1/2 x 135 3/16 in. (97.8 x 343.4 cm)
Overall, Frame: 49 5/8 x 64 5/8 x 5 1/2 in. (126 x 164.1 x 14 cm)

InscribedSigned and dated at lower left: "Corot 1856"

Credit LineGift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.

Object number71.632

Collections

European Art before 1945

On View

Chrysler Museum of Art, Gallery 215

DescriptionThis is an oil on canvas painting. It depicts an approaching thunderstorm; valley with a rushing stream and a lone tree. In the middleground beyond the steam is a shepherd with his dog and flock.

Label TextJean-Baptiste-Camille Corot French, 1796–1875 The Roman Campagna in Winter, ca. 1830–35 Oil on canvas Visible just beyond the stream, a shepherd and his flock endure the cold rain in this wintery scene. Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot developed as a landscape painter by travelling and studying in Italy, and this work is said to depict the rolling countryside he witnessed outside Rome. Corot painted it as a companion to another Italian view, La Cervara, the Roman Campagna (see illustration), and he designed the pair to evoke different times of day, weather, and emotional states. While La Cervara symbolizes the bright calm of morning, this painting evokes the gloomy dusk at the end of the day. Gift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. 71.632 image: Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot (French, 1796-1875), La Cervara, the Roman Campagna, c. 1830-1831. Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art ProvenanceBernheim-Jeune, Paris; Georges Bernheim, Paris; Conrad Pineus, Göteborg, Sweden, 1924; Walter Halvorsen, Paris; Thannhauser Galleries, Berlin and Lucerne, 1927; Acquavella Galleries, New York, 1949; Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.; Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, 1971. Exhibition History"French Paintings," Moderna Museet, Stockholm, 1924. (Exhib. cat. no. 2). "Corot-Daumier, Eighth Loan Exhibition," Museum of Modern Art, New York, Oct. 16 - Nov. 23, 1930. (Exhib. cat. no. 15). "Paintings from the Collection of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.," Portland Art Museum, Portland, Oregon; Seattle Art Museum; California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Minneapolis Art Institute; St. Louis City Art Museum; William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art, Kansas City; Detroit Institute of Arts; and Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, March 2, 1956 - April 14, 1957. (Exhib. cat. no. 75). "Chrysler Art Museum of Provincetown Inaugural Exhibition," Provincetown, Massachusetts, 1958. (Exhib. cat. no. 12). "French Paintings 1789-1929 from the Collection of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.," Dayton Art Institute, March 25 - May 22, 1960. (Exhib. cat. no. 26). "The Controversial Century 1850-1950," Chrysler Art Museum of Provincetown, Massachusetts, and National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, 1962. "French Landscape Painters from Four Centuries," Finch College Museum of Art, New York, Oct. 20, 1965 - Jan. 9, 1966. (Exhib. cat. no. 15). "Corot," Wildenstein Gallery, New York, Oct. 30 - Dec. 6, 1969. (Exhib. cat. no. 20). "French Paintings from The Chrysler Museum", North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, May 31 - September 14, 1986; Birmingham Museum of Art, Alabama, November 6, 1986 - January 18, 1987. (Exhib. cat. no. 23). "Corot 1796-1875", Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Paris, February 27 - May 27, 1996; National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, June 20 - September 22, 1996; Metropolitan Museum of Art, October 22, 1996 - January 19, 1997. "Behind the Seen: The Chrysler's Hidden Museum," Large Changing Gallery, Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Va., October 21, 2005 - February 19, 2006. "Reopening of the Joan P. Brock Galleries," Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Va., Opening in March of 2008. Published ReferencesAlfred Robaut. _L'Oeuvre de Corot_. Paris, 1905, II, pp. 92-93, no. 259. Jefferson C. Harrison. _French Paintings from the Chrysler Museum_. The Chrysler Museum. 1986. No. 23. Jefferson C. Harrison. _The Chrysler Museum Handbook of the European and American Collections: Selected Paintings, Sculpture, and Drawings_. Norfolk, VA: The Chrysler Museum, 1991, No. 72, p. 94, color ill. Francoise Cachin, ed., et al. _Corot_. Paris: Reunion des Musees Nationaux, 1996, pp. 130-1, color ill. p. 131. Gary Tinterow, Michael Pantazzi, and Vincent Pomarede, COROT (New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1996), cat. no. 31, pp. 84-85, p. 160, p. 411, color ill. p. 85.