The ruins of Arras

Corot painted this in 1852, just as a new habit was taking hold of him. The year before, he had made his first trip to the northern town of Arras to visit a younger painter, Constant Dutilleux, who had turned to landscape after seeing Corot's work at the Salon. That first visit grew into more than 20 years of near-annual stays, until Arras became a second home and a small circle of local painters formed around him. The town still carried the marks of its long military past, old ruined walls and stonework left standing among ordinary streets, and Corot paints them plainly, as weathered shapes under a soft, even light. On one of these visits, the year after this canvas, a friend in Arras showed him how to scratch a drawing onto a smoked glass plate and print it, and Corot, already past 55, took up the trick with a beginner's delight.