Dreaming of Corot

I confess to being a lifelong devotee
of Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot

having first fallen for him back
in Cincinnati,
especially in the Taft Museum

which, if not completely empty,
never had more than a few visitors
at any one time,
so each room felt like my
personal sanctuary




and what could be a better sanctuary
than a remote country scene
with the appropriate foliage,
chateaus,
and, of course, cavorting nymphs

(the above painting is from the Art Institute,
but the Taft has one just like it)



And when you've known paintings for a long time,
they're just like old memories
only better
sharper and more exciting,
though still identical to the scenes
once seen decades earlier.






and Corot-space is too delicious
to ever leave



and up close ....
the pleasure is almost unbearable
(just like with the Chinese paintings elsewhere on this blog)

What is the difference between
the best of
nature painting and nature photography ?

I think it's the depth/intensity of emotional involvement.
Photographs can be enjoyed,
but paintings can be loved.


Here's another Corot from the Art Institute,
this one painted 10 years later,
and only a few years before his death at age 79.




some of that sweet, sensuous mystery is gone,
but the power is still there


What a swinging group of trees !
This is the man who will teach me how to grow old.

(and, according to reports, he was a very nice old man --
funding a daycare center in Paris,
and supporting destitute artists and their widows)