Biographies

Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot (1796 – 1875)

Corot was born in Paris to parents who were successful milliners on the Rue du Bac. In 1815, he was apprenticed to a cloth merchant and only in 1822 when he was 26 did his parents agree to support his interest in a painting career. He worked in the studios of various artists and travelled widely, painting landscapes and people. He is often associated with the Barbizon school of painters, mostly younger men whom he knew, but was a traditional realist, who painted portraits and careful nudes as well as the landscapes for which he became famous.