Provenance
Gustave Claudon (possibly lent to Paris 1875); sold in equal shares to Goupil & Cie, Paris and Knoedler & Co., Paris, for 17,000 francs, July 3, 1899 [according to Goupil stockbook no. 26031, Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles]; sold to Alexander Young, London, for 225,000 francs, July 31, 1899 [according to the Goupil stockbook cited above]; sold by Young to Thomas Agnew & Sons, London, July 24, 1906 [according to a letter from Richard Kingzett, Agnews, to Martha Howard, Art Institute, dated July 20, 1990, in curatorial file]; sold in equal shares to Scott and Fowles, New York, and Knoedler & Co., New York, for £13,000, June 14, 1907 [according Knoedler stockbook no. 11481, Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, and the letter cited above]; sold to Mrs. W. W. Kimball, Chicago, for $7,000, April 9, 1909 [according to the Knoedler stockbook cited above]; on loan to the Art Institute from 1920 [see Bulletin of the Art Institute 1920]; bequeathed to the Art Institute, 1922.
Accession Number
4760
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
82.6 × 100.3 cm (32 1/2 × 39 1/2 in.); Framed: 122 × 139.7 × 14 cm (48 × 55 × 5 1/2 in.)
Classification
oil on canvas
Credit Line
Mr. and Mrs. W. W. Kimball Collection
Background & Context
Background Story
Jean Baptiste Camille Corot's Bathing Nymphs and Child (1855-60) is an oil on canvas that shows Corot's characteristic approach to the mythological figure subject. Nymphs bathing in a woodland pool was a theme with a long history in European painting, and Corot's treatment is characteristically poetic and restrained. The nymphs are shown in a forest clearing, their bodies rendered with a softness that integrates them into the surrounding landscape. The child among them adds a note of innocence and playfulness. The palette is dominated by the greens and browns of the forest and the soft flesh tones of the figures. Corot's handling is soft and atmospheric, the figures and the landscape merging in a continuum of light and color. This painting belongs to the period of Corot's fullest maturity, when he had achieved the perfect balance between observation and idealization that distinguishes his finest work. The bathing nymphs are not real figures in a real landscape but ethereal presences in a vision of ideal beauty.
Cultural Impact
Corot's mythological figure paintings represent the idealist side of his art, creating a world of poetic beauty that exists somewhere between observation and imagination.
Why It Matters
This painting of bathing nymphs and a child captures the idyllic beauty of Corot's mythological world, the soft handling and gentle palette creating a vision of innocence and natural grace.
