252
COROT — CORRENTI
Ontario ports. The surplus water from the Cornwall Canal furnishes excellent water privileges for its large factories, which include cotton and woollen mills and grist and saw mills. Population (1881), 4468; (1901), 6500. Corot, Jean-Baptiste Camille (17961875), French landscape painter, was born in Paris, in a house on the Quai by the Rue du Bac, now demolished, on 26th July 1796. His family were wellto-do bourgeois people, and whatever may have been the experience of some of his artistic colleagues, he never, throughout his life, felt the want of money. He was apprenticed to a draper, but hated commercial life and despised what he called its “business tricks,” yet he faithfully remained in it until he was twenty-six, when his father at last consented to his adopting the profession of art. Corot visited Italy on three occasions: two of his Roman studies are now in the Louvre. He was a regular contributor to the Salon during his lifetime, and in 1846 was “decorated ” with the knighthood of the Legion of Honour. He was promoted to be Officer in 1867. His many friends considered nevertheless that he was officially neglected, and in 1874, only a short time before his death, they presented him with a personal medal. He died in Paris in 1875 and was buried at Pere Lachaise. Of the painters classed in the Barbizon School it is probable that Corot will live the longest, and will continue to occupy the highest position. His art is more individual than Rousseau’s, whose works are more strictly traditional; more poetic than that of Daubigny, who is, however, Corot’s greatest contemporary rival; and in every sense more beautiful than J. F. Millet, who thought more of stern truth than of sesthetic feeling. Corot’s works are somewhat arbitrarily divided into periods, but the point of division is never certain, as he often completed a picture years after it had been begun. In his first style he painted traditionally and “ tight ”— that is to say, with minute exactness, clear outlines, and with absolute definition of objects throughout. After his fiftieth year his methods changed to breadth of tone and an approach to poetic power, and about twenty years later, say from 1865 onwards, his manner of painting became full of “ mystery ” and poetry. In the last ten years of his work he became the Pere Corot of the artistic circles of Paris, in which he was regarded with personal affection, and he was acknowledged as one of the five or six greatest landscape painters the world has ever seen, along with Hobbema, Claude, Turner, and Constable. During the last few years of his life he earned large sums by his pictures, which became greatly sought after. In 1871 he gave £2000 for the poor of Paris (where he remained during the siege), and his continued charity was long the subject of remark. Corot’s works are spread over Europe and America. The Louvre possesses several important pictures by him, and there are examples in Lille, Bordeaux, Rouen, Rheims, Toulouse, and other centres. In England the “Macbeth” in the Wallace Collection is the only one in a public museum, but it is not characteristic of his best period; and in Scotland there is the splendid “ Souvenir d’ltalie ” in the Glasgow Gallery. Besides landscapes, of which he painted several hundred, Corot produced a number of figure pictures which are now much prized. These were mostly studio pieces, executed, probably with a view to keep his hand in with severe drawing rather than with the intention of producing pictures. Yet many of them are fine in composition, and in all cases the colour is remarkable for its strength and purity. Corot also executed a few etchings and pencil sketches. In his landscape pictures Corot was more traditional in his method of work than is usually
believed. If even his latest tree-painting and arrangement are compared with such a Claude as that which hangs in the Bridgewater Gallery, it will be observed how similar is Corot’s method and also how masterly are his results. The works of Corot are scattered over France and the Netherlands, Great Britain, and America, and it would be impossible except in a very extended list to name them. The following may be considered as the first half-dozen :— Tine Matinee (1850), now in the Louvre; Macbeth (1859), in the Wallace Collection; Le Lac (1861); L’Arbre Brise (1865); Pastorale—Souvenir d’ltalie (1873), in the Glasgow Corporation Art Gallery; Biblis (1875). Corot had a number of followers who called themselves his pupils. The best known are Boudin, Lepine, Chintreuil, FranQais, and Le Roux. Authorities.—H. Dumesnil. Souvenirs Intimes. Paris, 1875. —Roger—Miles. Les Artistes Celebres : Corot. Paris, 1891.— Roger—Miles. Album Classique des Chefs-d’oeuvres de Corot. Paris, 1895.—J. Rousseau. Bibliotheque d'art moderne : Camille Corot. Paris, 1884.—J. Claretie. Peintres et Sculpteurs Contcmporains: Corot. Paris, 1884.—Ch. Bigot. Peintres Frangais Contemporains: Corot. Paris, 1888.—Geo. Moore. Ingres and Corot in Modern Painting. London, 1893.—David Croal Thomson. Corot. 4to. London, 1892. — Mrs Schuyler van Renssalaer, “ Corot,” Century Magazine (June 1889).—Corot. The Portfolio, 1870 (p. 60), 1875 (p. 146).—R. A. M. Stevenson. “Corot as an Example of Style in Painting,” Scottish Art Review, Aug. xxug. 1888. xuuu. (d, / C. T.) Corpus Christ!, capital of Nueces county, Texas, U.S.A. It is a seaport, with a fine harbour, and is situated in the southern part of the state, on Corpus Christi Bay. Two railways, the Mexican National and the San Antonio and Aransas Pass, enter it. Population (1880), 3257; (1890), 4387; (1900), 4703. CorreggiOi a town °f Emilia, Italy (province Reggio), on a canal connecting the Secchia and the Po, 11 miles by rail north-east from Reggio. It has an old castle, and a fine monument (1880) to the painter Antonio Allegri, better known as Correggio, who was born here in 1494 and died here in 1534. Cheese and hats are manufactured. Population of commune (1881), 12,587; (1901), 14,437. Correnti, Cesare (1815-1888), Italian revolutionist and politician, was born, 3rd June 1815, at Milan. While employed in the Public Debt administration he flooded Lombardy with revolutionary pamphlets designed to excite hatred against the Austrians, and in 1848 proposed the general abstention of the Milanese from smoking, which gave rise to the insurrection known as the Five Days. During the revolt he took part in the council of war and directed the operations of the insurgents. Until the fall of Milan he was Secretary-General of the Provisional Government, but after the restoration of Austrian rule he fled to Piedmont, whence he again distributed his revolutionary pamphlets throughout Lombardy. Elected deputy in 1849, he worked strenuously for the national cause, supporting the Crimea expedition and organizing a new revolt in Milan, which, however, was forestalled by the victory of Magenta. After the annexation of Lombardy he was made commissioner for the liquidation of the Lombardo-Venetian debt, and in 1860 was appointed Councillor of State. In 1867, and again in 1869, he held the portfolio of Public Instruction, taking considerable part in the events consequent upon the occupation of Rome, and helping to draft the Law of Guarantees. As Minister he suppressed the theological faculties in the Italian Universities, but eventually resigned office and allied himself with the Left on account of Conservative opposition to his reforms. His defection from the Right
