Relationships
Camille Corot
Ville-d'Avray
1870
Oil on canvas, 54.9 × 80 cm. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Nearly every passage here is a neutral: gray-greens in the foliage, green-black shadow along the bank, and a pewter sky behind the leaves. Even the pond reads as a silvery gray.
- Robaut likened the dark branches against the pale sky to a spider's web, a pattern drawn almost entirely in value.
- The greens never reach full strength; they lean toward silver in the light and toward near-black in shadow.
- By contrast, his early oil sketches, such as those made in Italy, are clearly defined and fresh, with bright colors in fluid strokes.
After about 1850 his style softened and his range of colors narrowed. Many later studio landscapes keep mostly to tinted grays and blue-greens.
Concepts
Image: The Met Open Access · CC0