The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 20, 2024

Landscape (The Large Tree)

Landscape (The Large Tree)

c. 1865–70
(French, 1796–1875)
France, 19th century
charcoal with stumping, erasing, and wet brushwork on light brown wove paper
Sheet: 24.2 x 41.8 cm (9 1/2 x 16 7/16 in.)
Bequest of Muriel Butkin 2008.386
Location: not on view

Description

Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot used sticks of charcoal, a powdery black medium, to dramatic effect in this late-career landscape, layering them and turning them on their side to form tonal areas and fine lines. Describing the period when the drawing was made, a colleague wrote that “one never saw [Corot] without . . . charcoal in his hand.” Such artworks conveyed the poetry the artist saw in nature and advanced his lifelong ambition of elevating landscape from the lowly status it held at the conservative French Academy. Here, he aimed to capture an evocative mood rather than a specific place, describing such works as “souvenirs,” or remembrances.
  • ?-1904
    James Staats Forbes [1823-1904], London
    1907
    (Obach & Co., London, England)
    ?-?
    (Allan Frumkin [1927-2002], Chicago, IL)
    by 1965-before 1981
    Victor Carlson [1934-2018], Baltimore, MD
    1981
    (Shepherd Gallery, New York, sold to Muriel Butkin, Shaker Heights, OH)
    1981-2008
    Muriel Butkin [1916-2008], Shaker Heights, OH, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
    March 2, 2009
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
    Provenance Footnotes
    1 According to inscriptions on old mount, as recorded by Shepherd Gallery.
  • French Drawings of the XIX. Century. Exh. cat. London: Obach & Co, 1907. Mentioned: no. 53
    Corot: 1796-–1875, 29. Exh. cat. Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 1960. Mentioned: no. 166
    Dee, Elaine Evans. 19th- and 20th-Century European Drawings. Exh. cat. New York: American Federation of Arts, 1965. Mentioned and reproduced: pp. 11, 19, no. 12
    Ittmann, John W., Robert Kashey, Martin L.H. Reymert, and Victor Carlson. The Forest of Fontainebleau, Refuge of Reality: French Landscape 1800 to 1870. Exh. cat. New York: Shepherd Gallery, 1972. Mentioned and reproduced: cat. no. 17
    Mendelowitz, Daniel M., and Duane A. Wakeham. A Guide to Drawing, 5th ed.. Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1993. Reproduced: p. 93, fig. 6-16.
    Foster, Carter E., Sylvain Bellenger, and Patrick Shaw Cable. French Master Drawings from the Collection of Muriel Butkin, no. 45. Exh. cat. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2001. Mentioned and reproduced: pp. 100-101, no. 45
  • Nineteenth-Century French Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 20-April 30, 2023).
    Corot: 1796–1875. Art Institute of Chicago (October 6–November 13,1960).
    French Master Drawings from the Collection of Muriel Butkin. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 26-October 28, 2001); Dahesh Museum of Art (February 19-May 18, 2002).
    French and Other European Drawings, Paintings and Sculpture of the Nineteenth Century. Shepherd Gallery, New York (Winter 1979–80).
    The Forest of Fontainebleau, Refuge of Reality: French Landscape 1800 to 1870. Shepherd Gallery, New York (April 22–June 10, 1972).
    19th- and 20th-Century European Drawings. American Federation of Arts, New York (July 1965–July 1966).
    French Drawings of the XIX. Century. Obach & Co., London (February–March 1907).
  • {{cite web|title=Landscape (The Large Tree)|url=false|author=Jean Baptiste Camille Corot|year=c. 1865–70|access-date=20 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2008.386