Attributed to Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot (1796 – 1875)

Wooded Landscape with a Pond

Paris, the mid-1830s

Oil on canvas

46.4 x 74.1 cm

This landscape possibly shows a scene at Le Martinet, near Montpellier in South France. 

Corot sketched there in 1836 and this studio work resembles a pencil drawing dated to that year.  The painting is signed and was bought as a genuine Corot, but the attribution has been questioned because of its uneven quality.  On balance, we believe that the work is of a high standard and dates from the 1830s, though perhaps not by Corot himself.  The signature may therefore be false, added later in order to improve the work’s salability.

Purchased 1940 (No.40.3)