Unknown_Corot-2012

January and February and in various locations in Normandy in July and August. A letter of August 11 was written from Granville, on the channel coast, and the present drawing dates from just over a week later. Corot would have had to pass through Rouen on his way back to Paris, and the city may have been his last stopover on this particular journey. Corot’s reference to the 17 th century Dutch masters is evident in the composition, tonality and focus of the Salon painting. In addition, the painting emphasizes the commercial activity of the Rouen quays, while our drawing is a more a topographical portrait. In this regard, and in its fresh, spontaneous character as a study drawn on site, the sheet is also related to a panoramic view of Rouen that Corot painted between 1829 and 1834 ( Rouen Seen from the Hills Overlooking the City , R II, no. 236 , The Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford). The panoramic study takes it point of view from a road in the hills, southeast of the spot where Corot sketched the drawing.