Unknown_Corot-2012

7 . Port of Honfleur , c. 1830

Graphite on paper 9 ½ x 12 ½ inches ( 24 . 1 x 31 cm)

This drawing is one of several studies that Corot made in the Normandy coastal ports from around 1823 to 1830 . The trips were partly facilitated by Corot’s family connection to the Sennegons, who lived outside Rouen (see nos. 8, 10 and 11 ), but the artist was also drawn to the villages of Honfleur, Trouville and Le Havre. The combination of expansive sky and sea, animated ports with boats, bustling figures, and jagged-cliffed beaches inspired many open air painters from the era and would continue to draw artists throughout the century. This particular work represents the shipyard at Honfleur, also the subject of an oil study by Corot. The boats, work materials, staging area and surrounding landscape have a similar arrangement in both drawing and painting ( Chantier Naval à Honfleur , c. 1823 , Pierre Dieterle, Martin Dieterle, and Claire Lebeau, Corot, Cinquiéme Supplément à L'Oeuvre de Corot par A. Robaut et Moreau-Nélaton , no. 6 , Private Collection). The painting is believed to date from around 1823 , as is another oil study of the same site, Old Wharf at Honfleur , now in the Rhode Island School of Design (c. 1822–25, R II, no. 35 ). While these paintings belong to the period before Corot’s first trip to Rome, the drawing’s technical prowess, particularly in the handling of the boats’ complex network of masts and rigging, suggests a date of around 1830 .

above: Chantier Naval à Honfleur , c. 1823 , Private Collection left: Quai d’un port de pêche, c. 1830 , Musée du Louvre, Paris