About the Work
The artist Camille Corot travelled across the French countryside on foot in search of picturesque, intimate landscape settings. He made oil sketches on the spot and later developed them in his studio. Corot's relaxed brushstrokes produce blurred contours around the objects, which he then smudges to create a uniform, atmospheric impression. With his selection of simple, rural subjects, he distanced himself from neoclassical painting. Corot is regarded as the main representative of the Barbizon School, and his painting style makes him one of the forerunners of Impressionism.
About the Acquisition
Benedikt Moritz Goldschmidt’s (1831–1906) heirs arranged for this bequest. Goldschmidt belonged to an established Jewish family of bankers. One of his relatives was Maximilian Benedikt Hayum von Goldschmidt-Rothschild (1843–1940), who had been ennobled in 1903 and who was considered the wealthiest Jew in the Wilhelmine Empire. By comparison, Benedikt Moritz Goldschmidt’s fortune of eighteen million marks was modest. The unassuming and sophisticated art lover was joint proprietor of the bank Moritz B. Goldschmidt.
