Camille Corot offers us here a poetic vision of Ville-d’Avray, where nature becomes both sanctuary and theater of daily life.
Through a delicate curtain of silver-tinted trees, the gaze slips toward a clearing bathed in diaphanous light. In the foreground, a humble woman, bent over her task, gathers faggots—a solitary silhouette that anchors the work in earthly reality while conferring an timeless dimension. The slender trunks, veritable living columns, create a mysterious depth while the luminous opening at the center reveals, as if by happy indiscretion, the distant presence of a peaceful dwelling.
Corot handles his palette here with an almost musical sensitivity: the tender greens, pearly grays, and subtle touches of blue compose a visual symphony in which vibrate the freshness of the air and the gentle melancholy of the woodland undergrowth.
Additional Information
- Title: “Woman Gathering Faggots at Ville-d’Avray” by Camille Corot, circa 1871-1874
- Dimensions: 28 3/8 x 22 1/2 in. (72.1 x 57.2 cm)
- Location: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Fifth Avenue, New York, exhibited in Gallery 803
- https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/435990
Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot (1796-1875), a figure of 19th-century French landscape painting, renewed the genre through his unique atmospheric sensitivity. Trained in the neoclassical tradition, he gradually freed himself from it to develop a personal style where light becomes the protagonist.
Corot established an essential bridge between classicism and nascent impressionism. Ville-d’Avray, his family’s anchor place, became his privileged laboratory, where he perfected this lyrical vision of nature that would profoundly influence subsequent generations. His vaporous technique, sometimes compared to the effects of photography, reveals an artist in constant search, whose work transcends categories to reach a universal truth about the fleeting beauty of the world.
