Remembrance of Italy
c. 1866 · Etching on tan laid paper · Image: 29.3 × 22 cm (11 9/16 × 8 11/16 in.); Plate: 32 × 24.3 cm (12 5/8 × 9 5/8 in.); Sheet: 42 × 29 cm (16 9/16 × 11 7/16 in.)
Corot, Remembrance of Italy, c. 1866. Etching on tan laid paper.
The Art Institute of Chicago · Elizabeth Hammond Stickney Collection
How to look at a Corot
- Squint first. Count the masses. If you count more than four, squint harder.
- Find the lightest light (nearly always sky, or water reflecting sky) and the darkest dark (nearly always a foreground tree trunk or a shadow under foliage). Everything else sits between them.
- In the Italian graphite sheets, notice how much paper is untouched and how few lines describe a whole hill town. Then notice that every one of those lines is exactly placed.
- In the late charcoals, look for where an edge disappears: a trunk into shadow, a hill into sky. Those lost edges are the air.
- In the etchings, half-close your eyes until the lines vanish and only tones remain. That is what he was building.
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