The Wagon

In May 1873 Corot went to a family celebration at Saintry, a village south-east of Paris, and painted a view of it there. A year later, almost certainly in his studio, he painted it again, and this is that second version. He moved the viewpoint slightly and changed some details. By then he was in his late seventies and painting many souvenirs, as he called them, landscapes built from the memory of real places. He died in February 1875. The sandy road climbs toward a cluster of sunlit buildings, and the square tower with a pointed roof among them is a dovecote that still stands beside Saintry's town hall. The hazier buildings further off probably belong to another village, Morsang-sur-Seine. On the road itself, small and easy to miss, a white horse pulls a cart.