.jpg)
Camille Corot was
much beloved during his lifetime for his ethereal, dreamy landscapes that often
combined scenes from mythology with a very personal interpretation of nature
observed. Claude Monet himself said, "There is only one master here: Corot."
Camille Corot was
much beloved during his lifetime for his ethereal, dreamy landscapes that often
combined scenes from mythology with a very personal interpretation of nature
observed. Claude Monet himself said, "There is only one master here: Corot."
In this painting,
the fabled musician Orpheus--who beguiled the Greek gods to allow him to
retrieve his beloved wife, who had been fatally bitten by a snake--leads her
tenderly from the underworld. In ancient times, it was believed that the
deceased continued to exist as spirits, seen here gathered in small groups
beneath the delicate trees. Corot, a great music lover, has imbued this work
with a sense of melancholy lyricism that hints at the tragic end of the story:
Orpheus loses Eurydice forever when he turns to look at her before reaching the
world of the living.
The sense of
filtered reality is enhanced by Corot's extraordinarily subtle use of color. He
strikes a wistfully sweet tonal chord, carefully modulating a narrow range of
grays, greens, and blues. Orpheus Leading Eurydice from the Underworld looks
forward to the artist's signature paintings, the Souvenirs and Memoires, in
which Corot removes all narrative elements and lets his landscapes stand as
"pure" objects.