Portrait of Marie-Louise Laure Sennegon

Laure Sennegon was 16 when her uncle painted her in 1831. She was a daughter of Corot's sister, and she later married a man named Philibert Baudot. She died in 1836, only 21 years old. Here she sits against a plain olive-brown ground in a pale blue dress with huge gathered sleeves, a buckled belt at her waist, a patterned orange scarf knotted at her throat and a small dark hat perched on her curls. The canvas has been cut down. Alfred Robaut, who catalogued Corot's work, recorded it at 42 by 34 centimetres, signed and dated at the lower right. Today it measures about 29 by 22, the date is gone, and the Louvre asks whether the name lettered in capitals at the top right is really Corot's own. The portrait was bequeathed to the museum in 1911.