View of Nemi
1843 or 1826
Medium
Graphite on cream wove paper
Dimensions
Sheet: 5 11/16 x 8 15/16 in. (14.5 x 22.7cm)
Classification
Drawings
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Bequest of Grégoire Tarnopol, 1979, and Gift of Alexander Tarnopol, 1980
Accession Number
1980.21.8
Tags
Art Historical Context
Nestled in the Alban Hills south of Rome, *View of Nemi* the serene beauty of the Italian lakeside town of Nemi, a favored sketching spot for 19th-century artists. Attributed to Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, the French master of landscape painting and a key figure in the Barbizon, this intimate drawing dates to either 1826 or 1843—likely from one of Corot's trips to Italy. There, he honed his plein-air technique, blending meticulous observation with poetic atmosphere, bridging Neoclassicism and the emerging Impressionism. Rendered in graphite on cream wove paper, the modest 5 11/16 x 8 15/16-i...
About the Artist
Camille Corot|Madame C. Bouchot · 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...