Painting Detail
Pool in the WoodArtist: Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot
Medium: Painting, Oil on canvas, 61x51 cm
Date: Between 1865 and 1870
Genre: Landscape
Source: 1931
Corot's work is suffused with love for his native landscape. In this painting we can feel the silence of the early summer morn in the half-dark and damp air of the forest. Corot had his own particular way of conveying trees - the crowns were picked out by just a few dulled greenish-brown tones, over which the artist applied small, broken silvery-green strokes with an almost dry brush. In this manner the artist achieved the impression of moving, shimmering leaves. The colouring, with limited variations around a single tonality as was typical of Corot's work, is enlivened by the white trunk of the birch tree and the red hat of the fisherman who stands by the side of the pool.
Corot's method of working in the open air and in conveying the changing effects of light and air anticipate the achievements of the Impressionists.