Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot (Paris 1796 – 1875 Ville d’Avray)

View of the ruins of the Claudian Aqueduct, Rome, near San Giovanni Laterano and the Villa Wolkonsky

oil on canvas
8 ½ x 12 ¾ inches (21.6 x 32.4 cm.)

Provenance:
Private collection, France;
sale, Sotheby’s, New York, 28 January 2010, lot 223.

Literature:
P. Dieterle, M. Dieterle, C. Lebeau, Corot: cinquième supplément à "L'Oeuvre de Corot" par A. Robaut et Moreau-Nélaton, Éditions Floury, Paris, 1905, Paris, 2002, p. 14, no. 11, reproduced p. 15.

 
In 1825, Corot concluded his formal education in Paris and embarked on his first journey to Italy.  Although he arrived during the rainy season, he was immediately impressed by his new surroundings: “that classic ground,” said Corot, “where every site recalls an event and every monument awakes a memory.”¹  Spending most of his time painting outdoors in Rome and the nearby countryside, the artist remained in Italy for three years and amassed more than 200 drawings and 150 small landscape paintings.

The present work was likely produced during this pivotal moment in Corot’s career.  Published for the first time in 2002, it was previously known only through a detailed sketch made by Corot's close friend and biographer, Alfred Robaut.  Robaut’s sketch was not based directly on the original canvas, but instead, on a copy by a certain architect named M. Rouault.²  

Our painting further attests to the freshness, clarity and keen sense of observation ever-present in Corot’s outdoor studies.  Set against a clear blue sky, a deteriorated Roman aqueduct adorned with lush foliage looms in the middle distance.  The bold geometry of stone and the soft clusters of vegetation form an image of grandeur and harmony, blurring the distinction between natural and man-made beauty.³  A subtle shift from light to dark green flora delineates the gradual incline of the terrain, leading the viewer’s eye to the palatial villa on the summit of the hill.

The ruins in the painting may be identified as segments of the Aurelian Wall and the Arcus Neroniani (a branch of the Claudian Aqueduct built under Nero shortly after 64 A.D.).  Corot likely recorded this view near the grounds of the Villa Wolkonsky on the Esquiline Hill, northeast of the Basilica of San Giovanni in Laterano.