Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, designer

Near the end of his career, Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot produced several etchings that explored memories of his three earlier trips to Italy, including this view of a hilly landscape with the dome of a church barely visible on the horizon. While his painted views of the Italian countryside are carefully composed and precise, this print exhibits extraordinary spontaneity and vigorous, almost wild, mark-making. It is closest to his sketches made on-site during rambles through the Roman and Tuscan countryside, but these prints are not based on specific sites or drawings. They are composite views designed to express the soul of the landscape as well as memories, the strongest of those conveyed clearly and darkly while others fade into the remote distance.