JEAN-BAPTISTE CAMILLE COROT

French critic Edmond Abu wrote in 1855: "Monsieur Corot - the sole and exclusive artist beyond genres and schools, and he does not imitate anything, even nature. He himself was inimitable. No one artist does not possess such a style and does not know how better to convey the idea of ??a landscape . It transforms everything it touches, and he takes possession of all, he never copies, and even when he writes from life - he is doing.

In fulfillment of his imagination, subjects clothed in a generalized form of a lovely, colors are softened and dissolved, and all is bright, young, harmonious. Koro - a poet of landscape. "

Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot was born July 17, 1796 in Paris, the family of Jacques Louis and Marie Francoise Koro Koro (nee Oberson). In seven years the boy was sent to boarding the teacher Letelle, where he remained until 1807. At eleven he was sent to Rouen, where his father received for his right to a scholarship in college.

At nineteen Corot had to do a clerk to the cloth merchant Rathje. But Camille did not know how to sell stale merchandise and selling new items at a loss. Rathje has translated it into product peddlers. But here they were unhappy because of his absent-mindedness.

Finally, when the Kingdom was already 26 years old, he decided to tell his father with unquestionable firmness: "I want to become an artist. " Father suddenly agreed: "All right, let it be on your way. I would like to purchase for your stock in trade business - the better - the money will stay with me. "

Camille goes to work in the studio Mishallona. After his death in 1822, Coro moved into the workshop of Victor Bertin - former teacher Mishallona. But here, too little Corot learned.

In 1825, Camille went to Italy. Stay in Rome was the years of his teaching and the beginning of independent creativity. Performed in Italian landscapes of Rome: "View of the Forum of the garden of the Farnese" (1826), "View of the Colosseum from the Farnese Gardens" (1826), "Santa Trinita dei Monti (1826-1828) - breathe the freshness of perception, beautiful nature and architecture of Italy. These pictures, rather reminiscent of sketches. It is here that Corot realized that "all that is written from the first time a sincere and beautiful in form. " In Italy, he learned to appreciate above all the first glimpse of any part of nature. Landscapes Roman Campagna "(1825-1826) and" Chivitta Castellana "(1826-1827), as well as other Italian studies, are remarkable strong sense of form, his beautiful built.

In 1827 the artist sent one of his landscapes - "The Bridge in August of Narnia" - in the Paris Salon. From his debut until the last days of Corot never missed a Paris exhibition. He is very dear to these annual meetings, which are so feared by many artists, even when dying, he left for the next two pictures show how pathetic and solemn proof of her fidelity.

Corot visited Italy two more times: in 1834 and a decade later - in 1843. These trips were connected with a desire to get acquainted with new areas of the country and write landscapes in different territories of Italy: Tuscany, Venice, Milan and again in Rome.

Photo — «Jean-baptiste Camille Corot»

Coro manner changed, he wrote, now lighter tones, but it has remained the same as a clear form, simple compositions.

By 1835 Corot traveled almost the whole of France, and then regularly every year, traveled to his native country. He was especially fond of the dead and quiet countryside: "After my walk I'm on a few days inviting me to visit the Nature, and here it begins my insanity: with a brush in hand, I'm looking for nuts in the forests of my workshop, I can hear the singing Birds like leaves fluttering in the wind, I see streams of streams and rivers, and even the sun rises and rolled up in my studio. "

The artist wrote a series of paintings, is now recognized as masterpieces: "View of Rouen", "old fisherman's port Gonfler", "Chartres Cathedral" (1830), "Sen. Orfevr Embankment" (1833), "Fishing Boats in Trouville" (1835) a series of Avignon.

In these works of Corot away from the brown palette of his first sketches, written at Fontainebleau. K. Mockler writes: ". . . With the help of black, white and gray colors and infinite shades of nature, he wrote, so that all of his works to preserve the freshness, while the sauces and stews of his contemporaries have faded and blackened.

After the Salon of 1835 one critic predicts that the name of the Kingdom will become famous among the artists of the French school, if he will not depart from the intended path.

In the following year in the journal "Artist" an article about Corot at the Salon in 1836: "Monsieur Corot is not adjacent to any of the classical school of landscape, nor to the school of Anglo-French, still less to the school, following the Flemish masters. He seemed to have their deep personal beliefs about landscape painting, and we are far from being able to influence him in the sense of rejection of his conviction: because originality is not common among us. "

Writer Theophile Gautier with Salon in 1839 gave a tip of Koro:

"All of his landscapes resemble one another, but none of it is not a reproach.

Everyone loves this green Elysium, the twilight sky, the epitome of the ancient rate, the valley of the ancient gods, where the glow of dawn on the forehead, the soles of drowning in rosah, wanders dream inspired artist and poet. Paintings Corot be covered with silver haze, like a morning mist whitish spreading across the lawn. All zybletsya, all floating in a mysterious world: the trees are painted gray masses that do not distinguish between leaves and twigs, but the trees Koro blows fresh wind and life. "

But before the victory is still far. In the Salon of 1840 Corot exhibited "Monk," "Flight into Egypt and the landscape, known as" shepherd. " This exhibition has been crucial in his career. Criticism relented: the pictures were taken from the catacombs. Gauthier, Planche, and Janin put praise in the press. For the "Shepherdess" Coro received 1,500 francs, and expressed the wish that this thing was passed Rouen museum. But Corot's father was still sincerely convinced that his son was just "having fun" painting.

It is fair to say that "salon" paintings by Corot, and especially "historical" and "mythological" landscapes - the weakest part of his work, but they show an original talent.

Photo — «Jean-baptiste Camille Corot»

Undoubted success in the Kingdom "mythological" genre painting was "Homer and the Shepherds," exhibited at the Salon of 1845, it said C. Baudelaire.

In the Salon of 1846 the artist exhibited a unique pattern of this year, called "Forest of Fontainebleau. " Coro growing popularity. Baudelaire and Champfleury support him in the press.

In 1846, Coro has received the Legion of Honor. Only then did his family, a quarter-century ignored him work, beginning to understand something. My father said that it was time to give more money Camille, and Camille was already turning gray!

After the revolution, the democratic artistic circles attracted to the device Salon Corot, 1848. Recognition of its artists is also reflected in the fact that the Kingdom was elected a member of a democratic jury of the Salon. In 1849, the famous theorist of realism J. Champfleury wrote: "Young honors him. The name of the Kingdom and is popular these days, it's all the more strange that the Kingdom is the only great French landscape painter. " But this does not mean no glory, no orders. Corot paintings still nobody bought.

"Since the fifties, in addition to the" historic "and" mythological "paintings by Corot occasionally wrote for Salon and the landscapes of France - said EM Gaidukevich. - For such landscapes by Corot long before the Impressionists used the method of multiple studies. Its meaning, to write one and the same motif under different weather conditions, at different times of the day, etc. "

In a magnificent series of sketches port of La Rochelle Coro far ahead of his time. One of them - "The entrance to the port of La Rochelle," according to his disciples Brisard and Comer, Corot wrote about 10-12 days in the same clock. On the old tower, standing at the entrance to the bay, caught finest lighting effect - the slanting rays of the sun are painted gray stone all shades of purple, pale and yellow. Smears of the liquid and transparent colors, which are written light and shadow, becomes thick and dense, when the artist wrote the ground and buildings in the painting "The port of La Rochelle," written for the Salon of 1852, the artist sought to convey the mood of serenity and clarity close Lorrain, whose very fond of. He tries so get rid of all transient, changeable in nature. The picture is not that he so succeeded in his study - the trembling light, motion, moving clouds and shadows. It seems to be frozen. To capture the sort of "always perfect and unchanging nature," as demanded by his representation of pictures, award shows, Corot, and changed the technique of painting: more carefully wrote out the details, smooths the surface glaze.

In the sixties Corot creates a series of deeply poetic works: "Remembering the Mortefontene", "Morning", a remarkable series of landscapes Manta. In his best works of the artist subtly conveys a different state of nature: a stormy and windy weather ("Gust of Wind", mid 1860 - early 1870), clearing after a rain ("The hay, 1860), cold and overcast day ("Belfry at Argenteuil", 1858-1860), a warm and quiet evening ("Evening", 1860).

The artist has never raced for novelty reasons, arguing that "the landscape could write masterpieces, without ever leaving the hills of Montmartre.

Photo — «Jean-baptiste Camille Corot»

" "After all, in nature - said Coro - no two the same minute, it's always changeable, according to the seasons, with light, with the hour of the day. "

By the artist had success, and finally, his paintings began to fly, and so active that Corot barely had time to copy them. Not surprisingly, the songs become repetitive and becomes a kind of stamp.

Works by Corot seventies such as "Bridge in Manta" (1868-1870), "Clouds over the Pas de Calais" (1870), "The Tower at Douai (1871) suggested trying to work in the old manner and simultaneously handle to new subjects and new scenic interpretation, proximity searches Impressionists.

As a portraitist Corot was "discovered" only after his death. Bernheim de Villers has calculated that the Kingdom has written 323 paintings with figures. The artist posed mostly his friends and relatives.

ED Fedotov wrote: "At his best portraits (" Girl, combing hair, "1860-1865," Woman with a Pearl, "1869;" Reading shepherdess, 1855-1865, "Claire Sennegon," 1840; "Woman in Blue" 1874), as well as in landscapes, Corot creates images of young French women, endearing vitality, and some images inspired by the classical prototype, which subtly combine the features of nature and the ideal. The image of "Woman with a Pearl" creates an association with women's styles of Raphael and Claire Sennegon - with models of Ingres. But the ideal images in the paintings of the Muses "Tragedy" (about 1860) and "Comedy" (about 1860), in contrast, convey the impression of real nature. Reality and the dream of the sublime in man and nature have always existed in art as Corot two faces of the poetic imagination of the artist. "

"The glory and the money did not change his habits, but allowed him to help the needy colleagues and all who approached him - says EM Gaidukevich. - He has been involved in charity exhibitions, contained a nursery for orphans, helping the young painter. Very tactfully and Coro just helped my friend - a wonderful French artist Honore Daumier. Old, half-blind, penniless, Daumier moved on bad quarters, often must owners. Corot bought a small house where Daumier shooting angle, and gave him a bill of sale. Widow artist Francois Millet, which raised nine children, he paid a small rent. However, many took advantage of his kindness. Koro not only permitted to copy his paintings, but very often corrected bad sketches and even a sign that they could sell a needy fellow. Its author later remarks salon paintings have a certain stamp, generating a large number of imitations and forgeries. Even when the artist's life, many specialized in counterfeit Corot, sbyvaya them mostly abroad. Someone Zhussom more greedy than insightful, collected - rather than genuine - 2,414 counterfeit works by Corot. But this famous anecdote pales in Compared with the fact that the 2000 works, written by Corot, 3000 are in America. "

Corot died February 22, 1875 in Paris and was buried in Pere Lachaise cemetery.