JEAN-BAPTISTE-CAMELLE COROT
(1796-1875)
Corot's introduction to printmaking came about whilst he was working as an apprentice draper for Delalin. During this apprenticeship Corot attended open drawing classes at the Académie Suisse. It was some time between 1818-22 that he made three lithographs, The Soldier dies and does not surrender, The Plague of Barcelona and A Village Fair. They are significant for being the only documented work made by Corot before he became a full-time student of painting. In theme (notably The Soldier dies..) Corot sought to emulate the style of Nicolas-Toussaint Charlet (see P.563) amongst others.
Corot had first visited Italy in 1825 and was to return in the early 1830s; in this etching and other works of the same period such as Chevriere au Bord de L'Eau, c.1865-70, he uses a low sky-line as is found in the Dutch School. Souvenir d'Italie was one of the first major commissions by Alphonse Cadart (1828-75) for the Societé des Aquafortistes . The Society was founded in 1862 by Cadart with the help of Felix Bracquemond (1833-1914) with the aim of encouraging the work of painter-etchers i.e. those such as Corot who saw etching as a creative process and not merely as a means of reproduction.
As an artist Corot also experimented with Clichés-verres with which he became interested in 1853. During the course of his career he was to make sixty-six works using this technique.
Copyright © Trustees of Cecil Higgins Art Gallery, Bedford.
Extract taken from Prints, Cecil Higgins Art Gallery .