Olevano, La Serpentara

Camille Corot rendered this Romantic Italian landscape in 1827 during his first trip to Italy. La Serpentara is a rocky, wooded area near Olevano Romano in the Lazio region, a site that attracted many 19th-century landscape painters. Corot captured the rugged terrain under Italian light.

Corot's Italian studies transformed his art. Working outdoors, he learned to observe subtle gradations of light and atmosphere that would define his mature style. Such oil sketches, painted directly from nature, influenced the Impressionists decades later. The work measures 59 x 46 cm, oil on paper mounted on canvas. It belongs to the Rudolf Staechelin Family Foundation in Basel, Switzerland, part of a distinguished collection of French painting.