Forest of Fontainebleau

1828–1834

Chasing the Salon: Normandy, portraits and first commissions

Between his first and second Italian trips Corot concentrated on preparing large landscapes for the Salon, often adapting his Italian oil sketches, reworked in the studio, according to Neoclassical principles. Away from the studio he travelled throughout France, returned to the Normandy coast and to Rouen, painted portraits of friends and relatives and received his first commissions; one of the most successful, a portrait of his niece Laure Sennegon in powder blue, was later donated to the Louvre.

1831–1833

A cool reception at the Salon and a decision to return to Italy

Corot exhibited one portrait and several landscapes at the Salon in 1831 and 1833. The critics received them coolly, and having failed to satisfy them with his Neoclassical themes, he decided to return to Italy.

1834

Second trip to Italy

In 1834 Corot made his second trip to Italy. The study “Morning in Venice”, dated to the same year, is now in the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts.

1835

A sensation at the Salon: “Hagar in the Wilderness”

In 1835 Corot created a sensation at the Salon with his biblical painting “Hagar in the Wilderness”, showing Hagar and the child Ishmael dying of thirst until saved by an angel; his bold, fresh statement of the Neoclassical ideal succeeded with the critics. The biblical and mythological subjects that followed did not succeed as well, as the critics found him wanting in comparison with Poussin.