The Curious Little Girl

Around 1860, Camille Corot was in his sixties and famous across France for large, misty landscapes in soft silvery greens, the kind that filled the walls at the Paris Salon. Small, close pictures like this one belonged to a private side of his work. He kept most of them in the studio, gave a few to friends, and rarely showed them, so the public that admired his landscapes barely knew this Corot until after his death in 1875. The girl leaning in to look at something just outside the frame is thought to be Emma Dobigny, a young Parisian model who sat for several painters and became one of Corot's favorites. It's painted quickly on a small piece of board, closer to a sketch caught in passing than to anything he meant for a gold frame.