Breton landscape. A gate shaded by tall trees

The Louvre calls this simply a Breton landscape, but an older title pins the place down. It is the entrance to the enclosure around the chapel of Sainte-Suzanne at Mûr-de-Bretagne, in the hill country of central Brittany. The picture probably belongs to the 1840s, when Brittany was still far off the painters' usual routes. The artists' colony at Pont-Aven that made the region famous only formed in the 1860s. Corot shows stone gate piers topped with carved finials, an iron grille between them and a few steps leading up. Huge oaks spread their branches over the whole scene. A woman in a white cap stands by the low wall, and another figure sits near the gate. Oaks still ring the chapel today, and the building itself is known locally for its painted vaults.