Vista de Génova

Corot went back to Italy in 1834 on his second journey there, working through Venice, Florence, Volterra and down to Genoa. Genoa was then a port of the Kingdom of Sardinia, and he took it from above, looking down over the harbour. He painted it on paper rather than canvas, which is how he worked out of doors, since sheets could be carried home in a folder and mounted later. This one was laid on canvas afterwards. It is small, under 30 centimetres high, and the water and the hills are put in at the speed of a single sitting. Corot never sold it. It was still in the studio when he died, and it went at his estate sale in Paris in May 1875 for 3,550 francs.