Claude Monet once said, "there is only one master here—Corot. We are nothing compared to him, nothing.” He was referring to Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot (1796 -1875), the French landscape painter who was prominent in the Barbizon school, a style of realism known for loose brushwork, tonal colors, and softness of form. Sometimes cited as an early precursor of Impressionist style, Corot was quite famous throughout France. Established and aspiring painters gathered in his salon and considered him their mentor and teacher. 

In this modest painting from the collection, we see a leaning tree painted in muted browns, which is a motif that shows up often in Corot’s works. Corot would travel in the summers and sketch, returning to his studio in the winter to paint multiple imagined landscapes based on his sketches. Thus, this painting is very similar to The Boatman of Mortefontaine, held by the Frick, The Leaning Tree Trunk, held by the National Gallery UK, The Bent Tree, held by the National Gallery of Victoria and Tree Leaning by the Lake, held by the Louvre.

This workcame to Tulane in 2003 and was conserved in 2012.

• Frame Dimensions: in. (cm)
• overall, framed Dimensions: 17.938 x 23 in. (455.613 x 584.2 mm)

This object is a member of the following portfolios: