Un Chemin Montant (An Uphill Path)

Bequest of Dr. Joan Huntley

'No man should become an artist who is not passionate about nature,' wrote Camille Corot around 1830 (Corot, Carnets, 1825-35). The great artist remained true to this statement his entire life, and inspired generations of artists both during his lifetime and upon his death to pick up their paints and move outside to paint the glories of nature firsthand.

Charles Baudelaire, one of the great writers of the 19th Century and a fervent admirer of Romantic art, wrote in his Salon review of 1845:
'Obviously this artist loves nature sincerely, and knows how to look at her with as much knowledge as love. The qualities by which the excels are so strong - because they are qualities of heart and soul - that M. Corot's influence is visible today in almost all the works of the young landscape painters - in those, above all, who already had the good sense to imitate him and to profit by his manner before he was famous and at a time when his reputation did not extend beyond the world of the studios' (C. Baudelaire, Art in Paris, 1845 - 1862. Salons and Other Exhibitions, (ed. J. Mayne), London, 1965, p. 24).

It is clear that this is precisely what the artist himself has done. Un Chemin montant was certainly painted out of doors, and Corot has captured all the spontaneity of the light, luminescence of the colors and the immediacy of the landscape all on a sheet of paper the size of a notebook.
Christie's Sale, 24 October 2007, Lot Essay