Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot: "Papa Corot"

"The Augustan Bridge at Narni" by Corot

"In Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot's younger days he was the liveliest among the lively. Tall of stature and herculean in build, possessed of perfect health, high spirits, and a gentle temper, student balls and studio suppers were his delight, and he was the delight of their frequenters. Yet wherever he was he never failed to disappear for a while at nine o'clock, when 'la belle dame,' as he called his mother, awaited him for a hand at cards. 

In his old age he was 'Papa Corot' to the whole artist world of Paris - no one more respected, more beloved and cherished; no one so ready with a helping hand full of money, a helping tongue full of cheer, and wise advice.

Of book-learning he had little, and his interest in the world outside his art was never very great. He often bought books from the stalls along the quais, but merely for the sake of their shape and color. He had an odd superstition that he ought to read 'Polyeucte' through, and began it perhaps a score of times, but he never got to the end, and we find no record of attempts with other works. Music, however, he loved with passion and rare intelligence, and nature he adored, understood, and explained with singular felicity of speech.

In his walks abroad he wore a long black coat and a high satin stock; in his studio, a blouse, a gay striped cotton nightcap, and invariably a long clay pipe; and with his shock of white hair and smooth-shaven face - where the very wrinkles did but define a smile around the vigorous mouth - we can well believe that he looked less like a poetical painter than the king of Yvetot or a jolly Norman carter. We smile back with pleasure even at his printed portrait, and wish ourselves among the students of Paris as they clustered, charmed, about the clever, wise, benevolent and brave old man."

To be continued

(Excerpts from "Six Portraits: Della Robbia, Correggio, Blake, Corot, George Fuller, Winslow Homer" by Mrs. Schuyler Van Rensselaer.)