Paintings, Drawings, Sculpture

Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot french, 1796–1875 . Figure in the Woods ( Figure en sous-bois )

c. 1860 – 70 Charcoal on paper 17 1 ⁄

8 x 11¾ inches ( 43 . 5 x 30 cm) Estate stamp lower left: Lugt 460 a

provenance Vente Corot, Paris 1875 Private collection, France

To be included in the forthcoming catalogue raisonné of graphic work in preparation by Martin Dieterle, Jill Newhouse, and Claire Lebeau. The radical idea of depicting a landscape vertically is one that interested Corot at different stages throughout his career, and it allowed him to reimagine nature within the bounds of his own aesthetic. Typically, he would place a single large tree or group of trees along one vertical side of the composition and a less dense group of trees along the opposite side, creating a U shape space in the center. He would animate the composition by including a single figure, either a shepherd, a lone traveler, or a mythological creature. In our drawing, the traveler is leaning against the tall thin leafless tree at the left, slightly hidden, as though he is on his way up the steep hill towards the building at the right. At the right, the trees are depicted with rapidly drawn, deliberately placed sinuous lines that overlap each other to