Olevano, the Town and the Rocks

Camille Corot completed this View of Olevano in April 1827 during the final months of his nearly three-year stay in Italy. Olevano, a town about twenty-five miles east of Rome, attracted Corot for its dramatic landscape of buildings perched on rocky outcrops. He returned to paint there again in the summer of the same year.

This work belongs to the group of around 150 oil studies Corot made outdoors in Italy. These sketches were created as preliminaries for larger studio compositions, but modern viewers often prefer them to the more finished works. Painting directly from nature, Corot captured light and atmosphere with a freshness that anticipated Impressionism. His Italian studies show an interest in unexpected viewpoints, asymmetric compositions, and visible brushwork.

The painting measures 10 7/8 x 17 7/8 inches (27.6 x 45.4 cm), executed in oil on paper remounted on canvas. Corot never intended these studies for exhibition and left most unsigned. The red seal reading "Vente Corot" at the lower right was added for the auction of his studio contents after his death in 1875. Today, the work resides at the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, representing the landscape tradition that inspired later generations.