Camille Corot, born Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot on July 16, 1796 in Paris1 where he died on February 22, 1875, is a French painter and engraver.

For a long time he was considered an amateur painter who had plenty of time to travel not only throughout France, but also to Italy, where he resided three times. During his wanderings, he never stopped painting idyllic landscapes, generally filled with small figures, according to the rules of classical landscape. Known for his philanthropy, he is also one of the founders of the Barbizon school. Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot was born on July 16, 17962 at number 125 rue du Bac, in Paris3. Corot came from a family of wealthy traders: his mother, Marie Françoise Corot (1768-1851), née Oberson, was the daughter of a Swiss from the Palace of Versailles4, and his father, Jacques Louis Corot (1771-1847) , had inherited his father-in-law's wig shop5 before working alongside his wife. The Corots became fashion merchants and ran a renowned boutique6, at the corner of rue du Bac and quai Voltaire, in Paris7, notably supplying the Duchess of Orléans during the Restoration. The Corots had two other children, Annette Octavie (1793-1874) and Victoire Anne (1797-1821) who lived on the floor above the store8.
Corot, palette in hand (around 1830). Oil on canvas, 33 × 25 cm, Florence, Vasari Corridor, gallery of self-portraits of the Uffizi Gallery.

Corot studied without distinction at the Letellier pension in Paris (1803-1807), then at the Pierre-Corneille high school in Rouen (1807-1812)9. On Sunday, he was welcomed by friends of his parents, the Sennegons, with whom he learned to love nature, a family whose son, Laurent Denis Sennegon, married the painter's sister in 1817. On leaving the boarding school at the Lycée de Poissy in 181510, he was placed by his father with two cloth merchants successively, in Paris (Ratier, rue de Richelieu where the new apprentice proved to be such a poor salesman that his boss employed him as a clerk courier, and in 1817 Delalain, rue Saint-Honoré11). But the young man had little taste for commerce, and took drawing lessons at the Académie de Charles Suisse on the Quai des Orfèvres in the evening3. In 1822, when his father wanted to “establish” him by offering him a business to take up the family torch, he ended up convincing his parents to authorize him to pursue a career as a painter, by obtaining an annuity from them. annual of 1,500 pounds (from which his sister who died in 1821 previously benefited)3. His parents' wealth protects him from want, but, in return, he will remain dependent on them until their death. He can now rent a studio on Quai Voltaire and makes it his workshop12.

In the spring of that same year, he entered the studio of the landscape painter Achille Etna Michallon (1796-1822), hardly older than him, who returned from Rome, where the Grand Prix de Rome for historical landscape had taken him, obtained in 1817. Michallon instilled in Corot the principles of neoclassicism and encouraged him to work in the open air13. From this time, Corot made numerous pencil drawings where he introduced relief and the play of light. Michallon takes him with him to discover Marlotte, the village which will be the base of the Marlotte group[ref. necessary], bringing together painters distancing themselves from those of Barbizon. But he died a few months later, and Corot continued his training with Jean-Victor Bertin, who had Michallon as a student, and who, like him, taught Corot the science of neoclassical compositions and historical landscape14. His two masters were students and emulators of Pierre-Henri de Valenciennes, one of the precursors of modern landscape who encouraged his students to paint studies in the open air which they then used to compose their paintings. It is in this vein that Bertin encourages him to go and work in the Fontainebleau forest. Corot will thus be one of the first painters to work in the village of Barbizon. He also went to paint in the Seine valley and on the Channel coast3.

The relationship between classical ideals and the observation of nature, itself inherited from the teaching of Pierre-Henri de Valenciennes, was to remain fundamental throughout his career.
The start of a career
The Bridge of Narni (Bridge of Augustus over the Néra) (1826). Oil on paper, 34 × 48 cm, Paris, Louvre museum.

Since the 18th century, the trip to Italy has been part of the Grand Tour, the training of every young artist. Corot was already familiar with Italian landscapes, which he copied on the canvases brought back from Italy by his master Michallon. It was therefore quite natural that he asked his parents to finance his first trip. Between 1825 and 1828, he stayed in Rome, Naples and Venice. During this stay, he became involved with another neoclassical landscaper, precursor of the Barbizon school, Théodore Caruelle d'Aligny. He went to Italy a second time in 1834

associated in the memory of the painter. Then follow one another paintings such as Matinée, Danse des Nymphes, Souvenir de Marcoussis or the famous Souvenir de Mortefontaine.

In 1862-1863, he stayed in Saintes and participated, with Gustave Courbet, Louis-Augustin Auguin and Hippolyte Pradelles, in an outdoor workshop called the “Port-Berteau group” after the name of the pretty site on the banks of the Charente. (in the commune of Bussac-sur-Charente) adopted for their joint painting sessions. The culmination of the fruitful convergence between the four artists, a collective exhibition bringing together 170 works was presented to the public on January 15, 1863 at the town hall of Saintes18.
Memory of Mortefontaine (1864). Oil on canvas, 89 × 65 cm, Paris, Louvre museum.

In 1846, he was made a knight of the Legion of Honor for his work, and he was promoted to officer in 1867. However, his friends, considering that he had not been officially recognized at his true value (he had not received the first medal c