Corot. The painter and his models

Exhibition catalogue Corot. The painter and his models, presented at the Musée Marmottan Monet, Paris (8 feb - 8 july 2018).

Known above all for his landscapes and paving the way for the Impressionists, Corot was also a painter of figures. However, he kept this part of his production in the secret of his studio – these works were scarcely diffused during his lifetime to a few friends, merchants or collectors.

The exhibition displays around sixty of these figure-based works, focusing mainly on portraits he made of his family and rarely seen nudes, from the most prestigious public and private collections in Europe and the United States. with the intention of exploring this relatively unknown side of the artist’s oeuvre.

There will be masterpieces such as the famous Femme à la Perle (Woman With a Pearl), the Louvre’s Dame en Bleu (Lady in Blue), and the National Gallery’s impressive Italienne (Italian Woman), which was once held in the collection of the painter Lucian Freud, along with other works that are just as splendid but rarely seen, such as his nudes.