Twilight

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

1845–60

Country of Origin, for CustomsFrance

Medium/TechniqueOil on canvas

Dimensions50.2 x 37.1 cm (19 3/4 x 14 5/8 in.)

Credit LineBequest of Mrs. Henry Lee Higginson, in memory of her husband

Accession number35.1163

On View

Not on view

ClassificationsPaintings

Collections

Europe

Description

Lush, silhouetted trees frame the last glimmer of daylight, while the mirrored surface of a tranquil lake catches the reflection. In the foreground, two young women gracefully gather fruit in a clearing. Described by a contemporary writer as “the greatest landscape painter of our time,” Corot displays his mastery of the genre in this poetic vision of nature.

InscriptionsLower left: COROT

ProvenancePossibly Goupil and Co., New York [see note]. By 1903, Henry Lee Higginson (b. 1834 - d. 1919), Boston; to his son, Alexander Higginson, Boston; to Ida Agassiz (Mrs. Henry Lee) Higginson (b. 1837 - d. 1935); 1935, bequest of Ida Agassiz Higginson to the MFA. (Accession Date: July 11, 1935)

NOTE: According to notes in the MFA curatorial file.