“Ville-d’Avray”
“Ville-d’Avray” is an oil on canvas painting by the French artist of the Barbizon school, Camille Corot, from circa 1865.
Corot owned a property in the French town of Ville-d’Avray just west of Paris. He had inherited it from his parents. It contained a house and large pond which Corot had painted many times. As such, many of his paintings contain “Ville-d’Avray” in the title. Today, the area is within the western suburbs of Paris.
In this piece, Corot depicts a view of his pond and house in a leisurely scene. In the foreground, a woman stands near the water’s edge carrying a bundle on her back. To the right, a man is seated with his back to the viewer, fishing in the pond.
This was one of Corot’s later works. His style is increasingly impressionistic, though his color palette remains much more subdued. There is a softness to the brushstrokes and an overall hazy glow to the light.
“Ville-d’Avray” is currently in the collections of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. in the United States.
For more on Camille Corot, please visit his short biography here.
You can find more artists to learn about here.
