The Italian Goatherd. Sunset Effect

This big canvas, almost two metres high, was meant to become a tapestry. According to Alfred Robaut, who catalogued Corot's work, it was ordered under King Louis-Philippe as a cartoon, the full-size model a weaver follows, for the tapestry works at Beauvais. The purchase went through in 1848, the year the king was overthrown, and nothing was ever woven from it. In 1876 the canvas went to the porcelain works at Sèvres, and it reached the Louvre in 1894. Robaut also believed it was shown at the Salon of 1848, but the Louvre notes that it appears neither in the printed catalogue nor in the register of works. The scene is a rocky hillside at sunset. Tall trees rise against a pink and gold sky, a young man sits on a boulder, and a goat stands among the rocks below.