Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot

About Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot

Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot (1796-1875) trained in the classical tradition and spent three long spells in Italy, painting the light at Narni and Tivoli with startling directness. Back in France he built the silver-grey manner he is known for: feathery trees, still water, a small red figure placed to hold the eye. Corot was generous with money and with praise, and the younger Impressionists treated him as a father. His figure paintings were barely seen in his lifetime.

The Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot Collection at BestOfBharat

Most of the range is landscape. Roads and lanes at Ville-d'Avray, brooks running under trees, a village street at Dardagny, the waterfall at Terni. Evening scenes and mythological groups appear, along with the Italian figure studies. Corot's tonal range is narrow by design, so several prints hung together stay coherent rather than competing with each other. Sizes run from small studies to wide landscapes.

Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot in Your Space

Corot is an easy painter to live with, because the palette barely raises its voice. Grey-greens and soft creams go with almost any wall colour. A single lane-through-trees above a console table works in a hallway that gets little daylight. In a bedroom, hang two together in slim dark frames. Corot pairs well with Constable and with Pissarro. Keep anything else on the same wall equally quiet.

Every artwork here is an archival print, hand-framed to order and delivered ready to hang — made in India.