Reading Beneath the Trees 1874

Camille Corot made this drawing, "Reading Beneath the Trees," with graphite on paper sometime in the mid-19th century. Corot lived and worked through a time of great social upheaval in France. It was a time of revolutions and the rise of modern industry, and the social structure became more fluid than ever before. Corot belonged to a generation of artists who questioned academic conventions. Rejecting the traditional hierarchy of genres, landscape painting became an important tool for exploring new notions of freedom. In his work, Corot often depicted peasants and working-class people as figures in the landscape, imbuing them with a sense of dignity and connection to nature. The historian can use sources such as exhibition reviews, letters, and other documents, to better understand the complex social and institutional dynamics that shaped Corot's art.