Maurice Robert

This portrait can be dated to a single day. According to the Louvre, Corot painted it at Mantes on 12 April 1857. The boy is Maurice, the son of François-Parfait Robert, the friend Corot often stayed with in that town, and he was three or four years old. He sits on a chair with a curved wooden back, in a grey suit trimmed with dark braid and buttons, a white collar at his neck. He holds a toy across his lap and looks straight at the painter. Corot gave the picture an oval format and signed his name in the dark background beside the boy. It is small, 29 centimetres high. The Robert family gave it to the Louvre in 1926, together with other pictures Corot had painted for them.