Oil sketch of the Swiss village of Dardagny which is signed for Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, $31,000 (£24,800) at Helmuth Stone.
At Helmuth Stone Gallery (25% buyer’s premium) in Sarasota, Florida on August 6, it more than doubled the top estimate to bring $31,000 (£24,800).
Corot was a tireless traveller. For much of his working life he would spend his summers on the move, making studies and sketches, and his winters finishing more polished, market-ready works in the studio.
In his later years he was an enthusiastic patron of the emerging rail network. The extension of the network of French railways in the 1850s-60s widened the range of his subject matter in his later years and he painted in Switzerland many times. He visited Dardagny, a small village west of Geneva, on three occasions: 1852, 1857 and 1863. This tranquil summer scene of trees and pasture with the lavender blue hills of the Jura in the distance depicts an area now best known for its winemaking. It was sold as an autograph work.
The strong market for Corot’s works in North America in the 19th century ensures many of his works still reside in US collections.
However, it also resulted in a huge number of Corot forgeries. The French art historian René Huyghe famously quipped that “Corot painted 3000 canvases, 10,000 of which have been sold in America”.
