Artists and interior decorators tell us that art makes a home more human. Amongst all the digital and other technological apparatus and devices found in households today, original paintings or professionally done reproductions of paintings can enhance the feeling of being human. An artwork “talks” to you. You can “listen “to the artwork on your own, or it can be a conversation piece when you have guests.
The famous Jean-Baptiste painter created paintings that are worth decorating your home with. Not only will Corot paintings enhance the décor in your home, but you and your guests will enjoy looking at the paintings every time you walk past them. Even if you only have one Corot painting or reproduction of a painting in your home, you’ve made a good investment – not only art-wise but financially as well.
In this article, we’ll look at the saying that art in your home tells other people something about yourself. Then we’ll briefly find out more about Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot as a person and artist and recommend one work that could be a good fit for your walls.
You and your Paintings
The choice of paintings in your home gives a good impression of who you are and what you like to be associated with. Most art-loving homeowners don’t have a separate room to use as a small art gallery; therefore, their paintings form an integral part of the décor. Integrating the artwork with the rest of the home’s décor depends on your taste and preferences.
Whatever your reasons for having paintings in your home, they have to be meaningful paintings. You should be able to explain to yourself and your guests why a specific artwork is in your home. It may be because you want a reproduction of a well-known painting you love, or perhaps you just like the colors used in the painting. Remember, usually, you purchase paintings for life.
To a great extent, the paintings in your home reflect your values, interests, and hobbies. For instance, if you are interested in old royal families, there would most probably be a work depicting such a royal family in your home.
If you love landscape paintings or if you are a person fond of the countryside, you might consider acquiring Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot paintings. A Corot landscape original or reproduction for your home will give you joy every time you look at it.
Springtime of Life – Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot
Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot (1796-1875)
Let’s have a bird’s eye view of the Jean Baptiste artist story. Corot’s father, a wig maker, and his mother, a milliner, ran their business successfully and invested well. Because of the good income they earned from their business, Jean-Baptiste never felt the want of money like many other artists of his time. As a young child, Corot was not interested in art. But when he lived with his father’s friends, the patriarch of that family frequently took the young Corot on nature walks. It was here that his love for nature began, and he started to paint landscapes.
Between 1821 and 1822, he was a student of a landscape painter, Achille Etna Michallon, and learned to create landscape sketches and paintings outdoors. After Michallon had died in 1822, Corot became a student of a well-known Neoclassical landscape painter, Jean-Victor Bertin.
Corot also went to Italy to study the Masters of the Italian Renaissance. However, before he went to Italy, he painted his first self-portrait. While in Italy from 1825 to 1828, he completed more than 200 drawings and 150 paintings. Later he focused on large landscapes to present at the Salon, and he traveled throughout France, concentrating on rustic landscapes. Apart from his famous landscapes, Corot also created portraits of friends and relatives in the famous Jean Baptiste Camille Corot paintings style.
Jean-Baptiste Art
When Corot became the well-known Jean-Baptiste artist, landscape painting was popular in Europe. There were two schools of landscape artists. One school represented the historical landscape painting style of the Neoclassicists, who idealized views of real and fancied sites and populated the scenes with mythological figures. The other school believed the painter had to depict the landscape as realistic as possible with figures of peasants.
Jean-Baptiste, the painter, learned from both and almost always tried to apply both traditions in his work, and sometimes even combined the two traditions in the same painting. Art historians believe that Jean-Baptiste’s art’s beauty is that he traditionally approached his landscapes. Compared with later Impressionists, Corot used more browns and blacks in his paintings – the so-called forbidden colors. His compositions were also always well-thought-out.
Apart from his landscapes, Corot also created many figure pictures where the figures are often depicted in pastoral settings.
River Landscape – Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot
A Corot Landscape for your home
There are many Corot landscape paintings to choose from, but acquiring “River Landscape” as your first Corot reproduced painting for your home will be a good choice. “River Landscape” is one example of Corot’s unique and impressive style. In the painting, you’ll find all his classic subjects, namely the woods, rivers, bushes, and sky of the rural region around Paris. The water and sky are intensely bright, while the land, rocks, and vegetation are dark to create a strong contrast.
If you want to add other Corot painting reproductions which are not landscapes, you can choose from many other paintings, including two famous works, namely “Hagar in the Wilderness” and “A Girl Reading.” One painting depicts a biblical theme, and the other is one of his “reading theme” paintings where women are depicted in different reading situations.
Conclusion
A Baptiste Camille Corot painting, a famous landscape, or any of his other works of art, will always be a good conversation piece in your home, especially if you are a lover of the outdoors. And from a financial angle, a Corot original or reproduction will always be a good investment.
