Unknown_Corot-2012

15 . Cutting Down a Tree in the Forest of Fontainebleau , c. 1835

Verso: Landscape Brown ink on paper 9 ½ x 14 5 ⁄ 8

inches ( 24 x 37 cm) Estate sale stamp lower left: Lugt 460 a

provenance Corot sale 1875 ; Sale, Paris, Audap, November 13 , 1985 .

l i terature R IV, no. 2683, p. 77 (reproduced as ‘Fontainebleau, c. 1835 ’).

Private Collection

This compelling sheet is comprised of two apparently independent studies: that of a reclining boy, and a large study of a felled tree with two loggers sawing the trunk. Robaut dated the drawing c. 1835 , an era in which Corot’s assiduous studies in the forest of Fontainebleau served him in composing his large Salon compositions when he returned to his studio in the colder months. This drawing offers a rare example of detailed study by Corot of figures and activities in the forest. In a letter dated August 22 , 1835 , Corot informed his friend, the painter Charles-Claude Bachelier, that he was canceling a trip to Italy due to a cholera epidemic, and was setting off for Fontainebleau. He invited Bachelier to join him: “Work carefully . . . draw firmly and truly,” he wrote. “The aspect of the true color, coming directly from your eye, without thinking of any painting. We come back to that soon enough in the studio” (Robaut I, p. 75 ). In fact the drawing does not appear to relate to a specific painting, though several later paintings by Corot include small, incidental depictions of loggers. Tree-felling and the deforestation of the ancient forest of Fontainebleau was later addressed by some artists, most notably Rousseau, as a deplorable act of modern destruction. By contrast, Corot’s attitude—at least during this period—seems to have been that of a neutral observer.