LETTERS TO THE EDITOR From : . Cecil Gould, Henry Tube, Tony
Heath, J. Jervois, Dunlop S. H. Logan, William Hale, J. C. Jones, M. W. H. Popham, C. A. Bosse, Anthony Blond, R. G. Davis-Poynter, Mrs. Lee McMurtrey.
The, Corot Exhibition
Snit. It would hardly be in the public interest to let Mr. Bryan Robertson get away with his review of the current exhibition of Corot at the National Gallery, for which I was in part responsible. His description of it includes the phrases 'imperfectly formulated exhibition' and 'doubly disappointing,' but the only specific justification which he vouch- safes in support of these strictures is 'the exhibition lacks a large number of important works, notably figure paintings.'
The facts are as follows. It has recently again become smart to admire Corot primarily as a figure painter. Some of his figure studies are indeed ex- tremely fine. but they are relatively not very numerous. The recent show at the Louvre demon- strated that there were not enough of them available to make an exhibition. SOme of those included were inferior, and in other cases the definition was stretched to include pictures where the figures were only incidental to the landscape. In any case, it would argue sheer perversity as well as a lack of propor- tion to allocate more than about a quarter of a Corot exhibition to his figures. He was a landscape painter who also produced some remarkable figure pieces.
I know of only six absolutely first-rate studies of women on a large scale, of which three (numbers 81, 85 and 98) are in the current exhibition. Of the smaller figure-pieces, there is the admirable Mois- sonnease (38). the Blonde Gasconne (48)—in which a number of twentieth-century trends are fore- shadowed—two family portraits (58 and 59) and three of Corot's friends (20, 69 and 70), three monks (7, 67 and 68) and the Halberdier (86). the better of the two self-portraits (36), probably the best of the Atelier series (88)—there are only half a dozen of these altogether, incidentally—the Delacroix-esque Jenne Algerienne (99) and the enchanting Jelin(' Fille (97) from Oslo. Also a number of others. Altogether a total of 25 out of less than 100 oils. At the only other important Corot retrospectives in recent years —at Berne and at Chicago in 1960—the ratios were similar-28 to 97, and 44 to 142 respectively.
Of other works which qualify as Important; the exhibition includes Corot's first Salon exhibit (17), his first considerable success at the Salon (33), his first purchase by the State (37) and the first and most influential of his nymph-in-glade Salon pieces (71.). It also includes the Flight into Egypt (35). which is a major work, virtually unknown, and not previously exhibited this century. Of the informal landscapes • which are likely to remain Corot's greatest achievement, the exhibition includes the small View of Rome (47), the Avignon (30). the Pierrefonds (52), the Paturages d l'aurore (56), the Quai des Pawns (42), the Paysans sous le.s. Arbres (45): and the Etretat (94), all of which are unsur- pasSable and which illustrate Corot's work in this genre at all stages of his life. Mr. Robertson in fact found by looking at the ex- hibition that the picture which it presented of Corot did not correspond with his preconceived notion of him. To the extent that this rested on a questionable ratio of landscape to non-landscape the notion was an arbitrary one. And the whole thing gives the im- pression of being used merely as a pretext around which to construct a sermon of a rather nebulous kind.
As the foregoing remarks are of necessity defen- sive, I should like to end - by summarising the principles on which the exhibition was planned. It was, within the limik imposed by the space available at Edinburgh. and, even more, by what it was physically pos.sible to borrow, to give a cross-section of the whole man. This compriies' formal and itt-
formal landscape, religious painting, portraits and other figure studies, drawings and prints. All this to be drawn as far as possible from every period of Corot's long life, I have tried to get the best available in each category and to allocate the proportion of one to another in accordance with what I conceived was their relative significance to the artist himself. Thus, the informal landscape was most fully repre- sented and formal landscape and figures less so.
It may be relevant to add that I was in touch with almost every important museum in the world which has Corots. and with most private collectors who have given any sign of life recently. I think that they would have lent to Edinburgh and the National Gal- lery more readily than to some other places. and I conclude that it would be difficult or impossible to stage a substantially better Carot exhibition anywhere else, except only at the Louvre.
6 Palace (late,IY8
CECIL GOUI.D
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