Creative Commons License
Watercolor relating to "Saint Sebastian Succoured by Holy Women"
(18th and 19th Centuries )
This watercolor has traditionally been seen as a study for Corot's painting "Saint Sebastian Succored by Holy Women," (Walters 37.192) but the composition has a sense of completeness that suggests it is in fact a later variant. The watercolor is also more slender than the painting, while the foliage at left has been reduced and the rise of land to the right eliminated. Corot very rarely worked in watercolor, preferring pencil and pen and ink in his early linear drawings and charcoal in his later, more tonal works.
Although Corot produced few watercolors, he displays in "Saint Sebastian," a mastery of the medium. He built up his surfaces with layers of diaphanous washes of grays and browns, while his muted tones, comparable to those in his late paintings, are offset by touches of brighter color, such as the green leaves of the foliage, the yellow of the distant ground, and the pinks of the foreground figures. Corot retains the arched format of the original painting composition.
Inscription
Provenance
Provenance (from the French provenir, 'to come from/forth') is the chronology of the ownership, custody, or location of a historical object. Learn more about provenance at the Walters.
Purchased by William T. Walters (through George A. Lucas as agent), Baltimore, March 2, 1884 [1]; inherited by Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1894; by bequest to Walters Art Museum, 1931.
[1] The Diary of George A. Lucas, p. 582.
Exhibitions
| 2024-2025 | Reinstallation 2024: Art and Process. The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore. |
| 2012-2013 | Camille Corot. |
| 2005-2006 | The Essence of Line: French Drawings from Ingres to Degas. The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore; Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore; Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham; Tacoma Art Museum, Tacoma. |
| 1992 | French Masterworks on Paper. The Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore. |
| 1983 | A Connoisseur's Portfolio: Nineteenth-century Drawings and Watercolors in the Walters Art Gallery. The Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore. |
| 1980 | Christian Imagery in French Nineteenth Century Art, 1789-1906. The Shepherd Gallery, New York. |
| 1979 | A Supple Brush: The Flowering of Continental Watercolors. The Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore. |
| 1965 | Corot. Royal Scottish Academy of Painting, Edinburgh. |
| 1951 | From Ingres to Gauguin: French Nineteenth Century Paintings Owned in Maryland. Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore. |
| 1946 | Corot, 1796-1875. Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia. |
Conservation
| Date | Description | Narrative |
|---|---|---|
| 8/30/1968 | Treatment | mounted; re-housed |
| 3/10/1970 | Loan Consideration | examined for loan |
| 12/18/1991 | Treatment | examined; mounted; re-housed |
| 1/1/2002 | Treatment | examined exhibition; repaired; mounted |
Geographies
France (Place of Origin)
Measurements
H: 9 13/16 × W: 5 1/2 in. (25 × 13.9 cm)
Framed: H: 17 3/8 × W: 13 1/16 × D: 1 1/8 in. (44.1 × 33.2 × 2.8 cm)
Credit Line
Acquired by William T. Walters, 1884
Location in Museum
Accession Number
In libraries, galleries, museums, and archives, an accession number is a unique identifier assigned to each object in the collection.
In libraries, galleries, museums, and archives, an accession number is a unique identifier assigned to each object in the collection.
37.1286
