Landscape with a Bridge

This painting is attributed to the great French landscape painter Jean Baptiste Camille Corot,

who had a major influence on the French Impressionists. Monet said of him “There is only one master here – Corot. We are nothing compared to him”. The painting does have the signature of Corot, but he was known to let his students copy his works and sign them as his own. Today many forgeries of Corot’s works have been identified, and so now this painting is ‘attributed’ to Corot, rather than definitively by him; although Sir Merton believed it to be genuine, in his autobiography “Home and Abroad” praising the qualities of the artist.

It depicts a river landscape with a man in a punt near a bridge. Scenic views of a bridge set in landscape was a popular theme with artists in this period.