Camille Corot
Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot was born on July 17, 1796, in Paris. He was educated at the Collège de Rouen and attempted two apprenticeships with drapers; however, at the age of 26, he was finally given the financial freedom to devote himself fully to painting. A trip to Italy was considered essential to artists in training at the time, and he made his first trip from 1825-28, visiting Rome and Naples. He returned to Italy in 1834 and 1843, and throughout the next decades, he also travelled extensively through the French countryside as well as visiting Holland, Belgium, Switzerland, and London. During these trips, Corot painted and sketched outdoors during warm months and spent the winters working in the studio on academic paintings to be exhibited in the Paris Salon. By the 1850s, his reputation was established as a landscape painter, and his style began to soften. Some of his most popular works were his ‘souvenirs’, paintings that were based on memories of real landscapes. Corot passed away in 1875.
Camille Corot is featured in Edition: The Best of the Met
