Signed 'COROT' bottom left, oil on canvas
13 x 18 1/4 in.
Executed circa 1850-1855.

Provenance

The Forbes Collection, London, 1878.
Hollander & Cremetti, London, 1884.
M. Knoedler & Co., New York, New York.
Acquired directly from the above in 1890.
Collection of Charles H. Senff, New York, New York.
His Sale, The Anderson Galleries, New York, New York, sale of March 28 and 29, 1928, lot 65.
Acquired directly from the above sale.
Collection of George D. Horst, Reading, Pennsylvania.
By descent in the family.
His Sale, Freeman's, sale of March 30, 2014, lot 4 (sold as The Garden Gate).
Acquired directly from the above sale.
Private Collection, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Literature

Martin Dieterle and Claire Lebeau, Corot: Sixème Supplément à l'Oeuvre de Corot par A. Robaut et E. Moreau-Nélaton, Éditions H. Floury, Paris, 1905, Claire Lebeau, Italy, no. 60 (illustrated).

Note

By the mid-19th century Corot firmly established himself as the leading figure of the Barbizon school of painting. Along with fellow artists Charles-Francois Daubigny, Narcisse Diaz de la Peña, Jules Dupré and Henri Joseph Harpignies, members of this group concentrated their efforts on painting the rich, wooded landscapes and forests of Fontainebleau and the surrounding regions of Bas-Bréau, Ville-d'Avray and Jean-de-Paris - paysages often sparsely populated by a lone figure or peasants undertaking their daily tasks. Corot's intimate landscapes have been characterized as idyllic, even dreamlike, while still maintaining an adherence to a nearly monochromatic color palette and a quiet restraint, as shown in the present work.