Creative Commons License
Creative Commons License
The Evening Star
(18th and 19th Centuries )
In the 1850s, Corot began to paint works that he sometimes referred to as "souvenirs," in which he tried not only to record his visual experience of a site but also to convey the sensations it evoked. In French the evening star (not a star, but in fact the planet Venus) is called “the shepherd’s star” (l’etoile du berger). Appropriately then, in this painting Corot includes a shepherd moving a flock of sheep along the shore of a lake. The light of the evening star is visible behind the light cloud, the woman with her back against the tree reaches her hand towards it. Corot’s paintings influenced the younger generation of Impressionist painters, but his work was rooted in landscape paintings of the previous century where figures were included to allude to episodes from classical mythology and literature. It has been suggested that this painting was inspired by a poem title “The Willow” by Corot’s contemporary, Alfred de Musset. After watching the artist paint a much larger version of the subject (now in the Musée des Augustins in Toulouse, France), William T. Walters commissioned this smaller variation. It differs slightly from the artist's initial conception in its looser brushwork and duskier sky.
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.
Commissioned by William T. Walters (through George A. Lucas as agent), Baltimore, 1864 (received by 1865) [1]; inherited by Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1894; by bequest to Walters Art Museum, 1931.
[1] The Diary of George A. Lucas, p. 171.
Exhibitions
| 2014-2016 | From Rye to Raphael: The Walters Story. The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore. |
| 2007-2008 | Déjà Vu? Revealing Repetition in French Masterpieces. The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore; Phoenix Art Museum, Phoenix. |
| 2004-2005 | The Road to Impressionism: Landscapes from Corot to Manet. The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore. |
| 2002-2004 | A Magnificent Age: Masterpieces from the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore. The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore; The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City; Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte. |
| 2000-2002 | Triumph of French Painting: Masterpieces from Ingres to Matisse. Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore; Philbrook Museum of Art, Tulsa; Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach; Dayton Art Institute, Dayton; Royal Academy of Arts, London; Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo. |
| 1998 | Before Monet: Landscape Painting in France and Impressionist Masters: Highlights from The Walters Collection. The Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore. |
| 1996 | Corot, Courbet und die Maler von Barbizon: 'Les amis de la nature' (Corot, Courbet and the Painters from Barbizon). Haus der Kunst, Munich. |
| 1979 | A Baltimorean in Paris: George A. Lucas, 1860-1909. The Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore. |
| 1889-1890 | The Works of Antoine-Louis Barye. American Art Gallery (New York), New York. |
Conservation
| Date | Description | Narrative |
|---|---|---|
| 2/1/1947 | Treatment | varnish removed; coated |
| 11/29/1978 | Treatment | varnish removed; coated; inpainted |
| 12/8/1995 | Treatment | surface cleaned; stabilized; coated; inpainted |
| 4/8/1999 | Loan Consideration | examined for loan |
Geographies
France (Place of Origin)
Measurements
H: 27 15/16 x W: 35 7/16 in. (71 x 90 cm); Framed H: 40 1/4 x W: 47 1/2 x D: 5 in. (102.2 x 120.7 x 12.7 cm)
Credit Line
Commissioned by William T. Walters, 1864
Location in Museum
Not on view
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.
37.154