Unknown_Corot-2012

of a Roman peasant boy from around 1825 (no. 3 ). In the 1830 s, Corot’s Salon paintings sometimes show him struggling with the task of integrating the fig ure in the landscape in a convincing way—his critics often faulted him on this point—while other, more intimate kinds of figural representation, including por trait drawings and paintings of family and close friends, are among Corot’s most compelling works of this era (nos. 8 , 11 , 13 ). One issue for Corot was that he resisted treating the human body with the same kind of simplification and loose execution with which he handled landscape. One work on view, a study for the figures in La Toilette of the 1859 Salon (no. 21 ), is a rare example of a drawing study for a specific Salon painting of this period. The task of placing large figures in the landscape seems to have required more pointed, preliminary drawing work than usual. A reward of any monographic drawings exhibition is that it enlarges our view of the artist’s interests and occupations. There is much to be discovered in Corot’s drawings from the 1830 s and 1840 s, a period in which the artist’s efforts to develop a “public” style of landscape painting for the Salon and for official commissions were not always entirely successful. Other kinds of challenges take shape in outdoor painting and drawing during these years, particularly in the course of Corot’s study in the forest of Fontainebleau and his travels throughout France. There are fine, varied examples of Corot’s outdoor work in Normandy (nos. 7 , 12 , 17 ) and two very different kinds of studies made in the forest (nos. 9 , 15 ). For this viewer, the drawing of Paris from an elevated vantage point (no. 10 )—an attempt to revisit the lessons learned on the hills of Rome and take them in a different direction—was a most unexpected discovery, as was the fascinating architectural study of St.-Germain-en-Laye (no. 16 ). The organizers of the exhibition join me in inviting viewers to make their own discoveries about Corot the artist and Corot the draftsman. Just as we know and value more than one “Corot,” we will continue to discover the unknown Corot through continued curiosity about the many objectives, themes, and media that comprise this rich oeuvre.