Art Institute of Chicago

Souvenir of the Environs of Lake Nemi

Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot (French, 1796–1875)

Date

1865

Medium

Oil on canvas

Culture

France

Department

Painting and Sculpture of Europe

Institution

Art Institute of Chicago

This scene is imbued with a sense of quiet and stillness, broken only by the lone female bather pulling herself out of the water by a branch. Although the setting is a real hillside lake he visited in northern Italy, Camille Corot painted the view from memory, having returned to Paris in 1843 from the last of three trips to the region. Thus, rather than presenting an accurate record of the location, the painting is a picturesque souvenir, with the topography transformed as much by the artist’s silvery-gray and deep-green palette as by his fond reminiscences.

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