Silverpoint

Mass

MassCorot's move

The three divisions of light

Foreground: the deepest darks and the strongest contrast. Midground: halftones. Distance: pale, close, soft. Each zone has its own quality of light.

Corot organised every landscape into three divisions of light, and if you learn one idea from him, learn this one. The foreground holds the darkest darks and the full range of value: here is where the trunk goes to 9 and the lit grass to 2, side by side. The midground is halftone: values 4 to 6, edges a little softer, contrast reduced. The distance is pale and close in value: 2 to 3, nearly no contrast, edges soft or lost against the sky.

Each zone has its own quality of light, and the zones do not borrow from each other. The far hill never gets a dark as deep as the near tree. The near tree never gets an edge as soft as the far hill. Keep the three ranges separate and the picture has depth before you have drawn a single thing in perspective.

In practice: before you draw, decide where the three divisions fall in your subject. Draw three faint horizontal lines on a thumbnail. Assign each zone a value range. Then, while drawing, check every mark against its zone: is this dark allowed here?

Visuals

Corot's three divisions of light: a landscape divided into foreground with the darkest darks and strongest contrast, a midground of halftones, and a background of pale, close valuesSKY · 1FAR · 2 to 3MID · 4 to 6NEAR · 6 to 9FAR: narrow, pale, softMID: medium rangeNEAR: full range, sharpestEach zone has its own quality of light. The far zone never borrows a dark from the near zone.
FigureNear, mid, far: three value ranges that never overlap.
Bent Tree by the Water, Corot, 1860/70
Art Institute of Chicago

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. Foreground tree and cow in the full range; a halftone plain; a pale strip of distance against the lightest sky.

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

La Cervara, the Roman Campagna, Corot, c. 1830–31
Cleveland Museum of Art

Corot, La Cervara, the Roman Campagna, c. 1830–31. oil on fabric.

Corot, La Cervara, the Roman Campagna. The same three divisions in paint: dark near ground, halftone valley, pale mountains.

The Cleveland Museum of Art · Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund

Pitfalls

What

A dark accent in the distance because the subject had one.

Why

It drags the distance forward and flattens the whole space.

Fix

Lighten it until it sits inside the distance's value range. Truth to the design beats truth to the photo.