Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot

1796-1875

Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot bridged Neoclassical landscape tradition and the innovations of Impressionism, emerging as one of the century's most influential painters. Born in Paris in 1796 to a prosperous merchant family, he began his career late, apprenticing first as a draper before his father consented to his artistic pursuits at twenty-six. His three trips to Italy between 1825 and 1843—particularly the first, lasting three years—proved transformative. Working outdoors in brilliant Italian light, he developed a distinctive approach: sketching natural scenes with luminous color and bold technique, then refining them in the studio with poetic imagination. Throughout his career, Corot painted countryside across France and Italy, capturing ordinary landscapes through a lyrical sensibility. His late works, wrapped in silvery veils of tone, blended observation with reverie. Never married, he remained prolific until his death in 1875, earning recognition at major exhibitions and supporting fellow artists. Painters from Pissarro to Picasso drew inspiration from his modernist vision.