Corot's later paintings.

images courtesy of artrenewal.org.

Here is a sampling of the later paintings of Corot. His work took on a gauzy softness and a pearly gray tone. The are hushed and elegant in their reserve. After years of being under appreciated and rejected repeatedly from the salon, Corot became very successful in his later years.

Corot never married and lived with his mother. He was an extremely generous man who gave away substantial sums of money to various charities and needy elderly artists. He supported a day care center in Paris and gave a house to the aged and blind artist Honore Daumier.


Because Corot's work was so identifiable and commercial there arose an entire industry devoted to copying it. He often lent paintings to copyist and occasionally would sign copies by students as his own work, after a few knowing touches of paint.

A famous joke made about Corot was that he painted about three thousand paintings, ten thousand of which are in this country.


Later in life he gave of him time as well surrounding himself with young students and was an important influence on the impressionist painters of the next generation.