Camille Corot

The Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe is presenting the first-ever comprehensive exhibition in Germany of the work of French artist Camille Corot (1796 – 1875). The accompanying publication features some 170 paintings, drawings and prints as well as numerous comparison illustrations. Corot put together a diverse oeuvre, ranging from luminous plein-air studies to lyrical landscapes and large-scale decorative works, from sensitive portraits to enigmatic fantasy figures. In addition to works from its own collections, the museum will display several pieces on loan from international institutions including the Louvre, the Musée d’Orsay, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Uffizi in Florence and the National Gallery in London. Working within the contemporary currents of Neoclassicism, Romanticism and Realism, Corot developed a pictorial language all of his own – one that would prove seminal for subsequent generations of artists. As the 'last Classicist' and 'first Impressionist' he eludes the conventional categories of traditional or avant-garde. In 1822, at the age of 26, Corot began his studies in the studio of the neoclassical landscape painters Achille-Etna Michallon and Jean-Victor Bertin, but before long his most important teacher would become nature herself.