Tower at the Lake's Horizon (Tour á L'Horizon d'un Lac)

Art Historical Context

Camille Corot’s *Tower at the Lake’s Horizon* captures the quiet poetry of the natural world through an intimate landscape. Created in 1871, late in the artist’s career, the small print depicts a distant tower rising above a tranquil lake, framed by delicate trees. Corot, a leading figure of the Barbizon school, was celebrated for his soft, atmospheric landscapes that bridged Neoclassicism and Impressionism, emphasizing mood over precise detail. The work is executed in cliché-verre, a distinctive 19th-century technique that merges drawing and photography. The artist scratched his design into a prepared glass plate, which was then used to produce a photographic print. This method allowed Corot to achieve the luminous, hazy effects he favored in his paintings while exploring new reproductive possibilities during a period of rapid technological change. Measuring just over four by six inches, the print invites close viewing and reflects Corot’s lifelong fascination with light, reflection, and the subtle rhythms of trees and water. Acquired by the Metropolitan Museum through the Harris Brisbane Dick Fund in 1934, it remains a fine example of his experimental printmaking.

About the Artist

Camille Corot · 1796–1875

Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, born in Paris on July 16, 1796, into a prosperous bourgeois family—his father a former wig maker turned draper, his mother a successful milliner—initially resisted his artistic calling. After a lackluster education at the Lycée Pierre-Corneille in Rouen and failed apprenticeships in business, he abandoned commerce at age 26, thanks to a generous parental allowance foll...