Landscape with Lake and Boatman

Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot

1839

Oil on canvas, Oil, Canvas

J. Paul Getty Museum

A man rows a boat on a calm lake at sunset, with trees and rocks on the left bank and a distant horizon. At the 1839 Paris Salon (a state-sponsored exhibition of contemporary art), Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot presented this painting as “Un soir” (An Evening), suggesting that one appreciate it less as a description of a specific site than as a poetic evocation of a time of day. The fading light softly glows through the trees and reflects off the lake while the two figures disembark from their boat at day’s end. This dark sunset scene serves as a contrast to its companion piece, *Italian Landscape*, a sunny, peaceful pastoral. The two paintings depict ideal Italian views that juxtapose different times of day. While the pendant is suffuse