Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, born on July 16, 1796, in Paris, was a pivotal French landscape and portrait painter and printmaker in etching. His work, merging Neo-Classical tradition with Impressionism's plein-air innovations, established him as a central figure in landscape painting.
Corot, born into a bourgeois family, enjoyed a financially secure upbringing, which was uncommon among his artistic peers. His father, a wig maker, and his mother, a milliner, ran a successful millinery shop, ensuring the family's comfortable lifestyle. Corot, the second of three children, received his initial education at the Lycée Pierre-Corneille in Rouen but struggled academically. Despite this, he showed no interest in art until after 1815. During his youth, he frequently joined the Sennegon family on nature walks, which inspired his first nature paintings.
At 21, Corot moved into a new family residence, utilizing the attic as his first studio. Initially working in his father's drapery business, he despised commercial life and, at 26, convinced his father to allow him to pursue art. His business background, however, enriched his aesthetic sensibilities, particularly through exposure to various fabrics and textures. Around 1821, Corot began oil painting, primarily focusing on landscapes, and by 1822, following his sister's death, he received an annual allowance that supported his artistic endeavors, including renting a studio on quai Voltaire.
During this time, landscape painting was evolving, split between the historical landscapes of the Neoclassicists in Southern Europe and the more realistic landscapes of Northern Europe. English artists like John Constable and J. M. W. Turner were influential, promoting Realism over Neoclassicism. Corot's early training was with Achille Etna Michallon, a landscape painter and protégé of Jacques-Louis David. Michallon introduced Corot to outdoor sketching and painting, particularly in Fontainebleau's forests, Normandy's seaports, and villages west of Paris. Corot also absorbed Neoclassical principles from Michallon and later from Jean-Victor Bertin, Michallon's teacher, learning to draw from lithographs and emphasizing precision in his work.
Corot's notebooks from this period reveal meticulous studies of natural forms, reflecting Northern Realism's influence. He seamlessly integrated both Neoclassical and Realist traditions in his work, achieving a balance between idealized beauty and realistic detail. This synthesis of styles would come to characterize Corot's significant contribution to landscape painting in the 19th century.