The Pond of Ville-d'Avray

Corot knew this pond for most of his life. In 1817, when he was still a young man, his father bought a country house at Ville-d'Avray, a village just west of Paris, and Corot came back to its water and willows for the next 50 years. He painted this view in 1865, at 69 and near the height of his fame. By then his touch had gone soft and feathery, the foliage loosened into a silvery haze and the light kept low and even. Works like this were half seen and half remembered, and French collectors could not get enough of them. He almost always set a small figure or two at the water's edge to give the calm a bit of life. He would paint this same place several more times before his death ten years later.