Lake Brienz

In the summer of 1842 Corot travelled through Switzerland, and for part of the trip he went up into the Bernese Oberland with three fellow painters, among them Théodore Caruelle d'Aligny, a friend since their years in Rome. Lake Brienz lies in the middle of that mountain country, a long, narrow lake just east of Interlaken. The canvas is small, 21 by 36 centimetres, and the view is simple. A wooded hill fills most of the picture, with a small tower on its summit, and behind it a steep mountainside fades into haze above the flat, pale water. The standard catalogue of Corot's work places it in that summer of 1842, while the Louvre dates it more broadly to the second quarter of the century. The museum also keeps his sketchbooks, which hold dozens more Swiss views.