The Sin le Noble Road near Douai

In the summer of 1873 Corot had less than two years to live, and he still went north to paint. In his last summers friends in Douai had him to stay, and he worked in the flat, marshy country that opens east of the town. This road leads out to the village of Sin-le-Noble. He painted a small study there outdoors and finished this larger canvas from it. The road runs pale into the distance, where a rider on a white horse is heading away. On the right, tall thin trees lean over a row of low cottages with steep roofs, and a strip of water in the foreground catches the sky. In 2013 it travelled back to Douai for an exhibition of Corot's northern landscapes at the town museum in the old Chartreuse.