A pupil of Michallon and then Bertin, Corot first came to realize that drawing is the very mainstay of art during his sojourns in Italy. From then on, all his life he constantly drew, initially favouring a sharp black lead pencil, and then an equally fine and delicate ink-pen. Stirred by a deep, innate desire to render nature as it is, the artist soon learned how he could best utilise these two media, doing endless landscape studies from life.After mainly drawing from life, Corot subsequently began to work increasingly from memory, devoting himself to countless variations on the theme of man in the midst of a mysterious natural setting. In contrast with the incisive handling of the studies done in the early part of his life, the drawings of the later period, with their deep velvety blacks, offer us the key to this imaginary world the artist delighted in, creating from memory countless visions of his journeys through Italy and France. The albums, filled with swift notations and sketches, allow us to follow this perpetual wanderer through all the places that he visited. They contain precious reflections by the artist about himself and his work. Subtle modulations in the single register of black and white, Corot's drawings offer us an admirable lesson of a life in harmony with nature.
