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Review: Corot Author(s): Marjorie Munsterberg Source: Art Journal, Vol. 51, No. 1, Uneasy Pieces (Spring, 1992), pp. 113+115 Published by: College Art Association Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/777262 . Accessed: 05/06/2011 08:42

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http://www.jstor.org Corot MARJORIE MUNSTERBERG

PeterGalassi. Corotin Italy: Open-AirPainting and the Classical-LandscapeTradition. New Havenand London:Yale University Press, 1991. viii + 258 pp.; 105 color ills., 200 black-and- white. $55.00

of an alcoholic,a sexuallyaroused or inhibited,or eter Representative of our attitude toward Galassi'sCorot in Italyis yet another an unfulfilledpersonality. The biographer'srole beautifullyproduced Yale University Press Corot'sart is that chestnut of the nineteenth- should be to enrich understandingand help the book that transformsour view of nine- century art-history survey, the comparison of viewer find deeper meaning in the work, rather teenth-centuryEuropean painting. His subject is Corot'soil sketch of the ruined bridge at Narni than to take the easier "low road"to popularity. specific: the landscape sketches that Jean- (Louvre,Paris) with his oil paintingof the same Only such a judiciousmerging of personalhistory Baptiste-CamilleCorot (1796-1875) made out of subject (National Gallery of , Ottawa), and artisticanalysis will bridge the gap between doors in Italy,especially those painted duringhis shown in Parisat the Salonof 1827. GermainBazin the popularand the highbrow-a gap that seems first stay (1825-28). But the ramifications of surely expressedthe reactionof twentieth- to become wider and deeper with the passing Galassi'sargument extend far beyondthese works century viewers when he wrote about the pair: of . by Corotand, in fact, beyond Corot himself.The "Whilethe study is a marvelof spontaneity, al- evidence the author gathers and the case he readycontaining the germ of Impressionism,the Notes makes from it dramatically change our ideas ambitiouscanvas is a mediocreexercise of a Neo- 1. JanGarden Castro, The Art and Lifeof GeorgiaO'Keeffe (NewYork: Crown, 1985). about the traditionof open-air landscape paint- classicalstudent" (p. 6). Galassicontinues: 113 2. NaomiRosenblum, "Paul Strand: The EarlyYears. 1910- ing, French academic studio practice, and the Th[is] of conflict between genuine per- 1932"(Ph.D. diss., Graduate Center of the CityUniversity of transformationof landscape as an artisticgenre NewYork, 1978). sonal expressionand inheritedacademic rules has duringthe nineteenth century.His conception of 3. Eisler'snote indicatesthat the letterin whichthis phrase remaineda staple of Corotcriticism. It allows the was written Anita to on Corot'sartistic originality is also important,for it appears by Pollitzer O'Keeffe January moderncritic to dismissthe greaterpart of Corot's 1,1916,and cites Giboire as the source.The letter, as reprinted offers rich possibilitiesas a paradigmfor other effort as a capitulationto conventionaltaste, and in part in Anita Pollitzer,A Womanon Paper: Georgia nineteenth-centuryartists: thus to O'Keeffe,The Letters and Memoirs of a LegendaryFriendship identify the remainder-Corot's work (NewYork: Touchstone/Simon and Schuster, 1988), 120, does The originalityof [Corot's]work arose not from from nature-with the authentic tradition of not containthe phrasein question.Robinson excerpts the impatiencewith traditionbut fromdeep devotion modern art (p. 7). letter (pp.128-29), reprintingthe partabout Stieglitz's reac- to it ... [lt] belongs to a , now obliter- tionto the drawings,but without the phrase"Finally a woman Such readingsof Corot'scareer, and the ated, when the unfolding of tradition was no on paper."In discussing this letter, both Castro (p. 31) and Lisle of in history landscape painting they assumed, (p. 83) agreethat there are problemswith the phrase.Lisle longer the hands of the academy, but when were contradicted dramaticallyin 1930, when notesthat it is an ;Castro reprints the letterin full, commitmentto traditionwas not yet an obstacle the Louvre received a bequest of several hun- includingthe phrase,but indicatesthat it probablywas ap- to originality(p. 227). pendedlater and in a differenthand. Giboire reprints the letter dred drawings by Corot's teacher Achille-Etna withthe phrase(p. 115),without noting its problems. These are arguments worth rehearsingin detail. Michallon (1796-1822) and many landscape 4. Thereis no indicationin textthat the Archive Eisler's Stieglitz Galassibegins his book with a historyof studies by the neoclassical landscape painter containscorrespondence between O'Keeffeand Stieglitz, Corot'sreputation. Like many others who came to Pierre-Henride Valenciennes(1750-1819). The consistingof many lettersthat she was unableto consult the trainedwith becauseit hasbeen sealed until 2021. By omitting this fact and scholarlymaturity during 1980s, latterespecially overturned much of the conven- statingthat the BeineckeLibrary opened a sealedpackage for revisionistreadings of nineteenth-centuryart, the tionalwisdom about the traditionin which Corot her,she leavesthe unsuspectingreader to assumethat she had author is quick to look beneath the familiarart- was trained.Galassi notes that, after seeing them access to all the materialavailable. That she did not was historicalpersona for long-buriedhistorical con- that year, RendHuyghe wrote: ascertainedin conversationwith PatriciaC. Willis,curator of texts and This is fruitful the Collectionof American Beinecke Yale meanings. especially in Literature, Library, Corotremains a poetic miracle, but no longer a University,New Haven,October 21, 1991. Corot'scase, for his artisticreputation has never historical miracle. Valenciennes, in his official 5. Willismaintains that the BeineckeLibrary made an adminis- encompassed all of his work. Galassiexplains: is associated trativedecision to openthe sealedcorrespondence. Conversa- role, with the most insipiddegenera- tionwith this author, October 21, 1991. The sense of Corot'sachievement [always] has tion of classical landscape; in his intimate work 6. Telephoneconversation with CalvinTomkins, September correspondedto the prevailing outline of prog- he directlyintroduces the young Corot,the Corot 1991. ress in nineteenth-centuryart. At any the of Italy . . . Once Corot is linked with classical 7. JoAnn Baldinger, "Two Portraits Steeped in Controversy," election of part of work to the un- to [the Barbizon SantaFe Weekly,June 14-20,1991, 8. Corot's grand landscape, opposed painters], 8. Hartmann'scritical writings have been collectedin Harry folding of artistic progress has transformedthe everythingbecomes clear (p. 8). W. Lawtonand George Knox,eds., The ValiantKnights remainderinto a puzzling failure-of talent or in Galassiobserves: of Daguerre:Selected CriticalEssays on Photographyand the favored explanation, of nerve. In the most Profilesof PhotographicPioneers by SadakichiHartmann extreme formulation Corot was both a coura- [These] brief remarkscontain two original and (Berkeley:University of CaliforniaPress, 1978); and Jane Weaver,ed., SadakichiHartmann: Critical Modernist (Berke- geous pioneer, for his outdoor painting, and a provocativeperceptions: that our understanding ley:University of CaliforniaPress, 1991). craven retrograde, for the Salon pictures he of Corot'swork is profoundly influenced by the 9. New York:Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 1983. painted in the studio (p. 2). frame of referencein which it is considered,and 10. Boston: New York 1977. Graphic Society, that the appropriatecontext for Corot's Italian Inthis scheme, Corot'swork became a precedent landscapesis not what came after but what came forthe Impressionistsas well as an essentialpart of NAOMI ROSENB LU M, authorof A WorldHistory of before. Thisbook might fairlybe summarizedas andarticles on Paul Lewis and the development of French classical landscape Photography Strand, Hine, an applicationof these two perceptions (p. 9). othertopics in photography,is at workon a historyof painting,bridging the centuriesbetween Poussin womenphotographers. and C6zanne(pp. 6-7). Havingplaced both the artistand the ar-

ARTJOURNAL gument historically-a very welcome of tion of its historicalimportance. The zeal with The artisticconfidence of Corot's Italian introduction-the author turns to careful recon- which Corot went to Italyis in itself proof of the sketchesmakes interestingcomparison to the rel- struction of the context in which Corot made sense of mission and importance neoclassicism ative tentativeness of the sketches he made of these pictures.First comes a lengthy discussionof gave its adherents, still, in the 1820s. Frenchsubjects upon his return home in 1828. outdoor sketching (chapter one, "Paintingfrom What happened in Italyto this traditionof Galassiconcludes his book with a reflection on Nature").At least for the historianof nineteenth- open-air sketching, discussed in chapter three, this difference: art, there are here. Most and what Corot did there, discussed in chapter century many surprises His firsttrip to Italyexpresses a seamless collab- is Galassi'sdemonstration of the four, defied the boundariesof that tradition: important degree oration of personal talent and collective circum- to whichopen-air painting was an integralpart of In effect, the synthetic process [of creatingAca- stance, of trainingand ,of tradition Academictheory and practice. Farfrom being a demic landscape paintings] had reversed direc- and innovation.Had Corotdied in 1829 he would radicalinnovation of nineteenth-centuryartists, tion, so that the traditionsof landscapecomposi- be admired;but he deservesstill deeper admira- outside flourishedin Rome even at the painting tion became a resource for outdoor work. ... tion forthe couragewith whichhe left the perfec- FrenchAcademy itself during the eighteenth cen- Insteadof graduallyshedding inherited conven- tion of Italy behind. Withouta new manifesto, tury.Furthermore, the artistictradition was full of tion, the new traditionbegan at a height of spon- without rejecting his education, Corot led the stories about studies made outside by Claude, taneity and graduallymatured by absorbing the creationof a new artisticopportunity rich enough GaspardPoussin, and other seventeenth-century lessons of the past (pp. 127, 129). to sustainmore than half a centuryof exploration mastersof classicallandscape, while treatises by by a roster of very talented painters. His Italian such authorsas de Pilesoutlined the details The past, in Galassi'sreading, providedessential Roger work is magnificent, but it marks the end of a of its practice. support: "What made the past so useful to the tradition. His French work is imperfect, but it account, the and of outdoor painters[in ... was its deep attach- Byany theory legends Italy] began a new one (p. 212). sketching nature out of doors converged in bril- ment to specific places. The outdoor paintersin liantachievements during the 1780s, when Valen- Italypossessed an artisticideal, which guided their The historicalrevisions that must be made if is it will ciennes and the British painter Thomas Jones ambitions; they possessed also a practical,de- Galassi'sargument accepted-as surely 115 (1742-1803) produced-probably independent tailedmap, whichguided theirfootsteps" (p. 128). be-are many. Those for Corot and the French of one another-splendid works in a strikingly Itis herethat Galassi'sparadigm of innova- traditionare profound. But perhaps even more "modern"style. Style is the most surprisingas- tion becomes important, for he argues that impressiveis the way his interpretationof this pect of these pictures, as Galassi discussed a Corot'svision arose not from isolation but from small section of history easily embraces artists decade ago in his exhibition catalogue Before community: "Artistically,the community pro- from the larger European context. The nine- Photography:Painting and the Inventionof Pho- vided an atmosphere of mutual encouragement teenth-century Frenchuse of the classicalland- tradition is contrasted to the much more tography. Although neither painter challenged and competition, and the security of a shared scape convention in his exhibitionpictures and, at least aesthetic. Practically,it providedan abundanceof vital use made of it by J. M. W Turner(1775- initially,both began outdoor sketchingas part of word-of-mouthadvice on where to go and how 1851), especiallyduring the same years (pp. 53- studio practice, these studies ended up to get there and what to paint." Unlikemany of 54). The subjects depicted by these artists lookinganything but usual. It is their astonishing the artistic groups we associate with the most outdoors in Rome are contrastedto the very dif- "modernity,"their discoveryand celebration of interestingpainting of the nineteenthcentury, this ferent selections made by John Constable(1776- abstractpictorial values in inconsequentialbits of "wasnot a narrowcommunity of a few advanced 1837), sketching outside in the Englishcountry- nature,that has made them so interestingto us. artists but a broad community of sophisticated side (pp. 99, 225). The Danish artist Christoffer But to eighteenth-century eyes, Galassi argues, tourists,which included painters"(p. 128). Thus, WilhelmEckersberg (1783-1853), whose sharp- their compositionalboldness was "a hallmarkof like Jacques-Louis David's Oath of the Horatii edged, highlydetailed paintingshave seemed in- unqualifiedempiricism," a proof that what was (Louvre, Paris),for one interesting comparison terestingly anomalous to our eyes, is finally an- seen had not been arrangedartistically. Nonethe- (cited p. 140), Corot's open-air Italian sketches chored within Europeanhistorical developments. less, the result was that, "emboldened by the give full and authoritative expression to well- In Galassi'saccount, he took "the Italianstyle of powerfuloil medium,outdoor sketchingacquired preparedmaterial. They represent "a richtradition bright, simply structuredviews of modest scale a new autonomy, defined in opposition to the at its peak of maturity"(p. 129). [andextended it] into a nationalschool." Thus the system of whichit once had been part.The empir- Galassi'sdescription of Corot'sposition in Italianworks of Eckersberg'sstudents Constantin icaland syntheticfunctions of landscapepainting relationto existingtraditions well explainsthe as- Hansen (1804-80) and ChristianKobke (1810- had become irreconcilable"(p. 37). It was left to tonishingmaturity of the oil sketchesmade by the 48) are "not so much contributionsto the linger- nineteenth-century artists like Corot to "re- young painterwithin one month of his arrivalin ing internationalschool in Italyas they are applica- establisha fruitfulexchange between the studio Italy.Talented but stillartistically immature, Corot tions of the [by then] establishedDanish style to and the newly expanded resource of outdoor learnedfrom his companions "a daily routine, a Italianmotifs" (pp. 224-25). work"(p. 39). favored itinerary,and a catalogue of motifs-a Corot in Italy demonstratesthe substan- Corot'seducation, the subject of chapter highly codified program of work, which gave tial rewardsthat can come from highly directed two, placed him in the center of these develop- shape to histalent" (p.136). Hisacceptance of the historical research. Refreshinglyfree of either ments. Verymuch within Michallon'sand Valen- most familiarmotifs is an importantpoint, for it theoreticaljargon or dissertationprose, Galassi's cienness tradition,he studied natureas a neces- marked his work as very different from that of book builds a grand argument from a circum- sary step in the process that led to the learned Valenciennes. The eighteenth-century painter scribedbody of material.At a moment when the synthesis of his exhibited landscape paintings. "hadavoided the celebratedmonuments, as if to field of nineteenth-centuryart history is chang- Galassirightly emphasizes how much of Corot's set his empiricalenterprise apart from the habits ing, such achievementis particularlywelcome. ambitionand aesthetic attitudes came from the of commercialtopography. Corot favored such Note neoclassicism that existed around 1800. That motifs,as if to investhis outdoor workwith histor- 1. New York:Museum of Modern Art, 1981. Frenchneoclassical landscape painting collapsed icalsignificance" (p.149). Corot'sbest Italianwork MARJORIE MUNSTERBERG has on a into stasis and then became a villainousinfluence "made it seem that classicalrigor and immediacy published varietyof topicsin nineteenth-centuryart and the history in the of of vision are not but one and eyes mid-nineteenth-century artists, qualitiesopposed, of photography.She currentlyis workingon a bookon Galassipoints out, should not affect our recogni- the same thing" (p. 138). nineteenth-centuryportraiture.

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