In this new series of blogs, I will be taking a brief look at artists’ techniques, focusing on the style or subject matter for which they are most well known. I will be selecting artists whose paintings I have copied or who have inspired my own work. For more details go to my blog, "How to paint in the style of..."
Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot (1796-1875)
A highly prolific and influential French artist, portrait painter and print maker, Corot is now primarily celebrated for his atmospheric landscapes. He inspired the landscape painting of the Impressionists, acting as a mentor for the younger generation, notably Berthe Morisot and Camille Pissarro (whom he is said to have advised to study tones).
Corot rejected the traditional chiaroscuro way of depicting light and shade in landscape, in favour of capturing the natural light and colour of the scene in front of him. A member of the Barbizon School, he was influenced to some extent by John Constable’s non-idealised scenes of country life. He peopled his paintings with woodcutters and collectors, farm labourers and boatmen, picking out their clothes with the few bright spots of colour he allowed in his otherwise close tonal painting.
Corot noted that “everything that was done correctly on the first attempt was more true, and the forms more beautiful”. He chose distant subjects to avoid excessive detail, rendering them as simply as possible with spontaneous yet careful brushstrokes. Although browns and blacks dominated his palette, he balanced the darks with soft coloured greys and blue-greens. He applied these with light feathery brushwork to achieve a pale silvery luminosity that is a feature of his later works.
Notable works include: “The Oak in the Valley”, 1871; “The Wood Gatherer”, 1865-70; “Recollection of Mortefontaine”, 1864.
To paint in the style of Corot, choose mood and atmosphere over topographical detail. Paint landscapes from memory or from on-the-spot sketches. Take note of your first impressions - what moved you to paint this particular scene?
Spend time planning your composition. Concentrate on the overall effect of natural light and shade. Choose a fine canvas with a short white ground. Apply a light silvery grey imprimatura made from alizarin crimson and viridian green.
Fix the greatest lights and darks with a thin dark underpainting of burnt sienna and sap green, applied with a dry bristle brush. Pick out branches with a more fluid black paint. A warm raw sienna works well as a background to trees. Develop the picture tonally, painting trees first and the sky last. Include any figures or animals in your underpainting as massed shapes. Add the minimum of detail later with a few dabs of colour to indicate clothes.
Use cobalt blue in the sky, moving downwards to grey, then violet and finally yellow at the horizon. To make Corot’s silvery blue-green grey, mix prussian blue, alizarin crimson (or cadmium red) with black and white. For a mid-green foreground mix a transparent yellow with prussian blue and small amounts of white, red and black.
Enliven with many small touches of olive green and black, creating a shimmering effect. For soft feathery edges around twigs and leaves, paint into a thin layer of stand oil. Add white to colours to heighten the overall luminosity. Add white impasto highlights before glazing.
Final touches Scratch into the paint in the foreground to suggest detail (grasses, stones, etc). When completely dry apply a cool blue glaze over the trees and sky, then a yellow warmer glaze in the foreground. Or apply a single unifying glaze over the whole painting to offset any “sinking in”: pale blue for a cool light; pale orange for a warm light.
The Wood Collectors, a study after Corot by Jenny Potter
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