Turn in the Road

Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot (French, 1796–1875)

about 1868–70

Medium/TechniqueOil on canvas

Dimensions62.5 x 48 cm (24 5/8 x 18 7/8 in.)

Credit LineGift of Robert Jordan from the collection of Eben D. Jordan

Accession number24.214

On View

Not on view

ClassificationsPaintings

Collections

Europe

Description

Corot was enormously influential on the younger generation of artists like Edgar Degas, who stated: “I believe that Corot draws a tree better than any one of us.” Here, the tall spindly trees, dappled foliage, and silvery, cool palette are typical of Corot’s late work, which often stems more from the artist’s imagination, imbued as it was with years of landscape study, than an actual view of the outdoors. The figures populating this quiet woodland scene are all stock characters Corot reused in many different compositions.

InscriptionsLower left: COROT

ProvenanceApril 21, 1876, M. Bonneau sale, Hotel Drouot, Paris, lot 11, sold for fr. 2700 [see note 1]. February 10, 1879, sale, Hotel Drouot, Paris, lot 4, to Goupil et Cie., Paris [see note 2]. Albert de Saint-Albin (b. 1843 - d. 1901), Paris [see note 3]. By 1903, Eben Dyer Jordan, Jr. (b. 1857 - d. 1916), Boston; by inheritance to his son, Robert Jordan, Boston; 1924, gift of Robert Jordan to the MFA. (Accession Date: April 17, 1924)

NOTES:
[1] Alfred Robaut, L'Oeuvre de Corot, Catalogue Raisonné et Illustré, vol. 3 (Paris, 1905), no. 1542.

[2] According to notes in the MFA curatorial file. This has not been verified.

[3] A label on the reverse of the painting reads "Collection A. de Saint-Albin."