Ville d'Avray

Described by one writer as “the very poet of landscape,” Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot captured serene prospects bathed in soft silvery light. He frequently painted, and stayed at, his family’s property in Ville d’Avray, in the countryside west of Paris. Here, he surveys the reedy edge of a pond, a glimpse of several buildings, and his characteristically wispy trees, all under an expanse of cloudy sky. Small figures are portrayed as part of the natural rhythms of rural life. Although he would have completed such a painting in his studio, Corot’s initial vantage point was directly behind the man he depicts cutting rushes in the foreground, subtly calling attention to the artist’s own labor taking place in the same space.