Unknown_Corot-2012

Leonardo da Vinci, Isabella d’Este, Musée du Louvre, Paris

number of dealers and collectors who sought them out. One such collector was the art critic Arsène Houssaye, who purchased several half-length studies by Corot during the artist’s lifetime and at the posthumous studio sale. Interestingly enough, Houssaye was also the author of a monograph on Leonardo which was published in 1869 . He presented Corot with an inscribed copy of this book, whose description of the drawing we know as Isabella d’Este (the sitter had yet to be identified) appears on page 481 .