Interrupted Reading
Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot (French, 1796–1875)c. 1870
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Materials & printing
Archival matte paper, 189 g/m² (10.3 mil), sourced from Japan, printed with multicolor water-based inkjet so every brushstroke stays crisp. Framed prints arrive ready to hang in a .75″ ayous-wood frame with an acrylite front. Sized to standard frames by cropping, never stretching — at most about 3% comes off one edge, which isn’t noticeable on most pieces, and we only offer a size when it stays that small.
Shipping & returns
Made to order and delivered in 5–8 business days (2–4 to print, 3–4 in transit). US shipping only for now. Because each print is made for your order, all sales are final — but if it arrives damaged or defective, send us a photo within 14 days and we’ll replace it free. Full policy.
Why is it this affordable?
A thin, flat margin on every piece — just enough to keep the store running. Most of what you pay is the print itself. We only sell sizes that reproduce at full quality, and we don’t mark up the large sizes the way most shops do.
About this work
Interrupted Reading is among the most compelling of Camille Corot’s late figure paintings. Corot almost never exhibited these studies of the human form, preferring instead to publicize the idyllic landscapes that were his specialty. To emphasize the private nature of Interrupted Reading, Corot enclosed his model within the protective environment of the artist’s studio. The mood of the painting is introspective and somewhat melancholic, the very essence of the Romantic sensibility. The muse-like image of a woman reading a book was a popular one in nineteenth-century art, but Corot chose to show his model pausing, looking up from this activity. Having spent a number of years in Italy and being a lover of everything Italian, the artist often furnished his models with Italianate costumes such as the one worn here. Whereas Corot’s subject matter is traditional, his technique is not. With direct and bold brushwork, he explored the human form as a construction of masses that support and balance one another. This broad handling is complemented by the artist’s obvious delight in detail—the ribbon in the model’s hair, the delicate earrings, the deep folds in the skirt. Here he combined a profound sense of formal structure with the dreamy softness and intimacy that characterize his most famous landscapes.
- Medium
- Oil on canvas, mounted on board
- Original size
- 92.5 × 65.1 cm (36 5/16 × 25 5/8 in.)
Museum record · 2 owners · 18 exhibitions
Provenance
- M. Jules de La Rochenoire (1825-1899), Paris by 1875.
- Alexandre Dumas fils, Paris by 1882; his sale, Paris, Hôtel Drouot, February 16, 1882, lot 15, as La Rêverie, figure, bought in for 2,450 francs; his sale, Paris, Hôtel Drouot, May 12-13, 1892, lot 24, as La Rêverie, sold for 4,300 francs to Durand-Ruel, Paris; sold for 20,000 francs to Mr. and Mrs. Potter Palmer, Chicago, on May 17, 1892; bequeathed to the Art Institute, 1922.
Exhibitions
- Paris, L’Ecole Nationale des Beaux-Arts, Exposition de l’Oeuvre de Corot, 1875.
- Cambridge, Mass., Fogg Museum, Exhibition of French Paintings of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, March 6-April 6, 1929.
- New York, Museum of Modern Art, Corot-Daumier: Eight Loan Exhibition, October 16-November 13, 1930.
- The Art Institute of Chicago, A Century of Progress Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture, June 1-November 1, 1933.
- The Art Institute of Chicago, A Century of Progress Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture, June 1-November 1, 1934.
- New York, M. Knoedler & Co., Loan Exhibition of Figure and Landscape Paintings by J. B. C. Corot, November 12-December 1, 1934.
- Paris, Musée de l’Orangerie, Corot, 1936.
- Philadelphia Museum of Art, Corot, 1796-1875, 1946.
- The Art Institute of Chicago, Corot, 1796-1875: An Exhibition of his Paintings and Graphic Work, October 6-November 13, 1960.
- New York, Wildenstein Gallery, Loan Exhibition of Paintings and Drawings: Masterpieces: Memorial Exhibition for Adele Rosenwald Levy, April 6-May 7, 1961.
- Sarasota, Fla., Ringling Museum of Art, Palmer Family Collections: A Sections of Paintings and Drawings lent by the Family, by the Estate of Pauline K. Palmer and by the Art Institute of Chicago, Potter Palmer Collection, February 23-March 24, 1963.
- Edinburgh Festival Society, Corot: An Exhibition of Paintings, Drawings and Prints, August 14-September 12, 1965.
- New York, Wildenstein & Co., Loan Exhibition for the Benefit of the Citizens’ Committee for Children of New York, Inc: Romantic and Realists, April 7-May 7, 1966.
- New York, Wildenstein & Co., Loan Exhibition for the Benefit of the Citizens’ Committee for Children of New York, Inc: Corot, October 30-December 6, 1969.
- The Art Institute of Chicago, Art at the Time of the Centennial, June 19-August 9, 1976, extended to August 15, no, Hermitage Museum, Ot Delakrua do Matissa: shedevry frantsuzskoĭ zhivopici XIX-nachala XX veka, iz Muieia Metropoliten v Niu-Ĭorke i Khudozhestvennogo Instituta v Chikago, March 15-May 19, 1988; Moscow, Pushkin Museum, June 10-July 30, 1988.
- Paris, Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Corot 1796-1875, February 27 – May 27, 1996; Ottawa, National Gallery of Canada, June 21- September 22, 1996; New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, October 22, 1996 – January 19, 1997.
- Madrid, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Corot: Naturaleza, Emocion, Recuerdo, June 7–September 11, 2005.
- Paris, Musée Marmottan Monet, Corot: the Painter and his Models, Feb. 8-July 8, 2018.
