Evening

Camille Corot occupies a special place in 19th-century French art. Following the traditions of Western European landscape painting, he had an impact on the formation of such Impressionists as Monet, Sisley and Pissarro. This painting is a typical work by Corot. It combines the classical clarity of composition, the emotional perception of nature of the Romantic artists and the realistic observation in the rendition of illumination effects. The composition of this painting is based on a contrast between the dark foreground and the bright distance. Between the flanking high trees, seen as dark silhouettes against the pinkish-yellow clouds, a distant panorama opens up. The warm light of the setting sun slips across the leaves, colouring the sky on the horizon with pearly-golden tones. The small figures in Corot's works (here the gatherers of brushwood) link the art of the painter with pictures by Jean François Millet, Gustave Courbet and the artists of the Barbizon School.