''Ville-d’Avray'' is an 1865

oil painting Oil painting is a painting method involving the procedure of painting with pigments combined with a drying oil as the Binder (material), binder. It has been the most common technique for artistic painting on canvas, wood panel, or oil on coppe ...

by French artist

Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot ( , , ; 16 July 1796 – 22 February 1875), or simply Camille Corot, was a French Landscape art, landscape and Portraitist, portrait painter as well as a printmaking, printmaker in etching. A pivotal figure in ...

. It is on display at the

National Gallery of Art The National Gallery of Art is an art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, located on the National Mall, between 3rd and 9th Streets, at Constitution Avenue NW. Open to the public and free of charge, the museum was privately established in ...

Washington D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

History

In 1817, Corot's father bought a country house in

Ville-d'Avray Ville-d'Avray () is a commune in the western suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the centre of Paris. The commune is part of the arrondissement of Boulogne-Billancourt in the Hauts-de-Seine department. Demographics Transport Ville ...

, on the outskirts of

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

, where the painting was made. Ville d'Avray became for Corot the equivalent as the

Fontainebleau Forest The forest of Fontainebleau (, or , meaning, in old French, "forest of heather") is a mixed deciduous forest lying southeast of Paris, France. It is located primarily in the arrondissement of Fontainebleau in the southwestern part of the departm ...

for the

Barbizon Barbizon () is a commune (town) in the Seine-et-Marne department in north-central France. It is located near the Fontainebleau Forest. Demographics The inhabitants are called ''Barbizonais''. Art history The Barbizon school of painters is n ...

artists. Throughout his career, the artist repeatedly painted views of this place.

Description

The painting depicts the calm surface of a pond ("etang") and buildings on the far shore, the figures of peasants, merged with the landscape and engaged in their usual familiar and ordinary activities. The foreground is given to one of the artist favorite motifs: trees. Most likely, these are willows, which Corot painted quite often. Gentle pastel tones create a strange drowsy atmosphere of early morning in this landscape. The silver sky is pale, the houses are reflected in the lake, and the sun that illuminates these houses is reminiscent of the picturesque sketches created by Corot in Italy. The depicted objects are quite prosaic, but Corot makes the landscape evoke in the viewer a feeling of peace and tranquility, while the fullness of light and air originates a sense of graceful dissolution in nature.

Provenance

The painting was donated in 1955 to the

, in

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

, by Count Cecil Pecci-Blunt.

External links

''Europe in the age of enlightenment and revolution''
a catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art Libraries (fully available online as PDF), which contains material on d'Avray (see index) {{DEFAULTSORT:Ville d'Avray 1865 paintings Landscape paintings Paintings by Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot Paintings in the National Gallery of Art Cities in art Water in art