Bent Tree by the Water
1860/70 · Charcoal, with stumping and erasing, on cream wove paper, laid down on cream board · 45.4 × 55.2 cm (17 7/8 × 21 3/4 in.)
Corot, Bent Tree by the Water, 1860/70. Charcoal, with stumping and erasing, on cream wove paper, laid down on cream board.
Corot, Bent Tree by the Water, charcoal. Three divisions of light.
The Art Institute of Chicago · Harold Joachim Birthday Fund, purchased with funds provided by the Alsdorf Foundation, Mr. and Mrs. William O. Hunt and Frank B. Hubachek
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.
Draw this
4 studies of this work
Master studyCorot · The late charcoals
Bent Tree by the Water
Three divisions of light, a cow, and a leaning trunk
2h- Foundation
Corot · Unit 3
The three divisions of light
Copy the structure of Bent Tree by the Water, then build your own
1h - Foundation
Corot · Unit 3
Branch logic and sky holes
A winter tree from the ground up, then a summer tree that breathes
1h - Capstone
Corot · Unit 7
Master copy II: Mass
Corot's Bent Tree by the Water, in charcoal, in full
1.5h
