The Gardens of the Villa d'Este at Tivoli

Corot first climbed up to Tivoli in the winter of 1827, a beginner on his first trip to Italy. He came back in 1843, in his late forties and by then a seasoned painter, and settled on the terrace of the Villa d'Este above Rome to make a few studies. This is one of them, worked up in oil on cardboard. The gardens, laid out for a cardinal nearly three centuries before, are softened here into a haze of grey, brown, and green, the fountains and cypresses folding into the mist. A boy sits on the stone balustrade, looking out over the valley. Study of the paint has shown Corot added him last, once the view was already there.