The Arch of Constantine and the Forum, Rome

Corot probably painted this small oil study on paper while at the site, facing northwest along the main axis of the Roman Forum. The view was one admired and recorded by other artists — for example, J. M. W. Turner. A late afternoon sun illumines and silhouettes the famous monuments, which include the Arch of Constantine, the Arch of Titus, the ruins of the Temple of Venus and Rome, the stubby remains of an ancient fountain called the Meta Sudans, and the distant campanile of the Palazzo Senatorio on the Campidoglio. A crystalline light and the cool, pale hues of green, blue, and buff suggest that the season is late spring or early summer, before Roman heat turns the Forum into a dusty oven.

According to the artist’s friend Alfred Robaut, the sketch was executed on the last of Corot’s three trips to Italy. In 1826, during his first trip, Corot had painted two larger, panoramic views of the Forum as seen from above at a distance. Both of the earlier paintings, now in the Louvre, are more composed and finished than the Frick study. Like so many of his predecessors, such as Valenciennes, Bertin, and Michallon, Corot often referred to his sketches when back in his studio, where he prepared his larger canvases for sale or exhibition. The freshness and immediacy of the open-air oil sketches are qualities increasingly admired today.

Source: Art in The Frick Collection: Paintings, Sculpture, Decorative Arts, New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1996.

[Corot posthumous sale, May 26 et seq., 1875, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, Lot 365.] Henri Fantin-Latour, Paris. McCormick family, Chicago. Stephen Hahn, New York. Mr. and Mrs. Eugene Victor Thaw, New York. Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Eugene Victor Thaw, 1994.

Source: The Frick Collection: Drawings, Prints & Later Acquisitions. Volume IX. New York: The Frick Collection, 2003.