| By 1860 Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot had established his reputation with views
of forest glades populated by nymphs or gentle peasants, softened as if seen
in a dream. Although primarily a landscape artist, Corot painted nudes throughout
his career, sometimes as informal studies, at other times as figures in mythological
scenes. The mythological nudes, like this woman reclining on a leopard skin,
are at home, comfortable, in the out-of-doors.
Traditionally called Bacchante with a Tambourine, the Corcoran painting
shows a nude in the foreground, gazing out of the picture, and four figures
in the
background, gathered around what is probably an uplifted wine cup. It has recently
been identified as Repose, one of Corot’s six entries to the Salon
of 1861. The Salon, a huge, government-sponsored, juried art exhibition, was
the centerpiece
of an artist’s public life. Here reputations were made or lost, and artists
submitted paintings that they hoped would stand out in the crowd (3,146 paintings
appeared in 1861). Corot exhibited at the Salon regularly over his long career;
between 1827 and 1875 he showed more than 125 works, paintings as well as prints.
Only two of the many paintings were nudes. The critics had little to say about
Repose, but they were specific enough to permit the identification: “In
the foreground of the landscape Le Repos is a large nude female, lying on a
panther skin”; and “The bacchante lying in the foreground of the
Repos is, uncharacteristically for the painter, rather well drawn and modeled;
but the badly drawn figures in the
background are impossible...”
- Fronia E. Wissman, Independent Scholar |
Text excerpted from A Capital Collection: Masterworks from
the Corcoran Gallery of Art.
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