Friendship Between Jean Baptiste Camille Corot and Other Artists

Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, born in France in the late 1700s, was instrumental in making a landscape painting a highly regarded genre in France. He served as an early representative of the Impressionist era. Corot was a crucial figure in the formation of the Impressionist movement because he utilized natural light and his delicate, attuned landscape paintings that were sensitive to the hues and patterns of nature.

Corot changed how landscape sketches were perceived, and this was due to his commitment to painting landscapes. Although he frequently produced enormous, gigantic canvases, some of his greatest works are sketches he took outside while traveling through Europe and France. As a result, Corot was one of the first painters to show the worth of drawings as standalone works of art and the beauty in their spontaneity.

This was yet another critical stage in the development of the Impressionist movement, which elevated the sketch’s flimsy aesthetic to new heights. Corot appreciated the company of other artists and was good friends with a lot of people who were both his inspiration and those who helped him succeed. Here are a few of Corot’s positive interactions with other painters.

Barbizons and Corot

Famous Jean Baptiste painter allied himself with the Barbizon School and other more organically minded aesthetic movements. Many artists in the group, like Théodore Rousseau and Jean-François Millet, were close to him. They were both drawn to muted colors that reflected the surroundings and subdued tonal shifts that suggested depth.

He also painted the Fontainebleau forest, a favorite location for the Barbizon movement. One of these works was honored at the 1833 Paris Salon with a second-class medal.

Despite the dramatic changes brought about by the Industrial Revolution all around him, Corot consistently portrayed an idealized view of the French countryside. Corot stayed solidly in the idyllic past, unlike other artists who started integrating steam engines and massive trains into their works. None of Jean Baptiste Camille Corot paintings even made a passing allusion to the radical social and industrial change going on in his nation.

The Impressionists and Corot

As his success developed, Corot received a growing amount of honors from French society. As a result, he was quickly regarded as a buddy by the impressionists.

One of his famed privileges was being a member of the Salon committee, where he and his colleagues were authorized to evaluate artworks presented to the Salon. Corot used his clout to support the painters trying to reshape French art and the burgeoning impressionist movement.

In the Salon’s roaring critics, he defended their work. As a result, Corot was not only a prominent supporter of the Impressionists but also a significant influence on the movement. Corot’s commitment to painting “en plein air” had the most significant impact on the Impressionists. 

Corot committed his lifetime to draw outdoors to capture his scenes in the most realistic manner possible, following the instructions of his early artistic masters.

One of the most important reference points for the Impressionists’ concern with light was his emphasis on natural light. This innovative method of painting served as a foundation for the Impressionist Movement and the innovations of painters like Camille Pissarro, Claude Monet, and Alfred Sisley.

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Corot, Morisot and Pissarro

It’s possible to argue that Corot’s mentoring of Berthe Morisot and Camille Pissarro was his most significant interaction with the Impressionists. Jean Baptiste Camille Corot’s painting style was amazing, and young painters were eager to learn from him, and he delighted in sharing his expertise. Due to his considerate and kind treatment of his students, the elderly man earned the affectionate name “Papa Corot.”

Like many other Impressionists, Morisot started her career painting outdoors and was heavily influenced by Corot. Later in his lifetime, famous painter Jean Baptiste drew female figures in addition to his landscapes; however, these were less well-liked and remembered. The women depicted by Morisot were contemporary Parisians who were a part of the city’s evolving society throughout the 1850s and 1860s as it was rebuilt and redesigned by Haussmann.

Nevertheless, they share Corot’s aesthetic sensibility; his hazy, silvery palette and keen attention to natural light are also reflected in several of her pieces.

Being born a woman during a period when women’s independence was severely constrained meant that Morisot was primarily limited to painting scenes of gardens. As a result, she could not journey as Corot, who painted magnificent terrain from Rome and elsewhere. Despite this, Morisot made the most of her constrained freedom to produce original works that drew inspiration from Corot’s landscapes but were placed in settings that were more familiar to her, particularly the gardens of her house.

Corot slightly influenced Pissarro differently. Pissarro first saw Corot’s works during the Universal Exposition in Paris, and he is sometimes credited as having had a massive effect on the artist’s career. The beauty of Jean Baptiste’s art led to Pissaro drawing inspiration from his delicate brushwork. 

Despite being a hallmark of the Impressionist movement, the subtle light in many of Pissarro’s paintings may be viewed as having been inspired by many of Corot’s sketches. Because Pissarro played a vital role in the creation and continuance of Impressionism, Corot’s impact on Pissarro was crucial for the Impressionist movement.

Conclusion

Corot was not only a fantastic artist but also a kind person. This can be observed in his humane deeds of using his wealth to provide unobtrusive assistance to less fortunate friends, such as the caricaturist Honoré Daumier. In addition, Corot was empathetic to young painters, though he didn’t go overboard by showing it in public. 

He had a large following of students and followers and taught the later Impressionists. Everyone adored “Papa Corot,” as many of his followers called him, for his steadfast goodness and generosity in his later years. Corot’s place in the kingdom of 19th-century art is unquestionably secure.

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