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Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot
Chartres Cathedral
1830 (retouched in 1872)
© Musée du Louvre/A. Dequier - M. Bard
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Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot
Chartres Cathedral
1830 (retouched in 1872)
Oil on canvas
H. 64 cm; W. 51.5 cm
Étienne Moreau-Nélaton donation, 1906
R.F. 1614
Paintings
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| Vincent Pomarède |
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Chartres Cathedral |
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As the collector Étienne Moreau-Nélaton put it, Corot, "like the Romantics, was enthusiastic about the masterpieces of Gothic architecture. This led him to Chartres." This work was painted during the Revolution of 1830, when Corot had to flee Paris.
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An odd composition
One of Corot's first masterpieces, Chartres Cathedral was painted in 1830, a few months after the artist's return from Italy. Still suffused with the light of that country, this work, with its clear tones and visual objectivity, is perfectly laid out and soundly structured. Corot's concern with the architecture is clear, but he has chosen an odd compisition, with the mound and the stacked stones in the foreground. Partly taken from life, the painting was considerably reworked forty-two years later by Corot, who enlarged it when it was being relined and added the small figure at bottom left.
Out of proportion
The viewer is immediately struck by the composition of the painting. The "vacant lot" with its three trees, slabs of stone, and houses is in marked contrast with the sheer size of the cathedral and its spires. If we block out the spires, the building fits with the overall scale, but otherwise everything seems out of proportion. This was the criticism Corot himself made in 1872, his attempt at a solution being the addition of the child seated on a block of stone in the foreground.
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Paintings : 
