1870, Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, The Art of Poetry -- Wallraf-Richartz Museum (Cologne)
Corot's painting is not a portrait of some unknown girl dejectedly hold- ing a farewell letter from a lover. The laurel wreath plaited around her head is the clue: it points to the art of poetry, while the motif of the head supported on one hand recalls Albrecht Dürer's copperplate engraving of "Melancholy". Totally absorbed in herself, her eyes closed, the girl seems to be filled with the kind of inner visions which it takes a poet to express in words. One could respond to this idealization of the art of poetry by remembering how dif ficult it can be to put pen to paper, or in the words of Pliny the Elder, "No day without a line".
1870, Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, The Art of Poetry -- Wallraf-Richartz Museum (Cologne)
Corot's painting is not a portrait of some unknown girl dejectedly hold- ing a farewell letter from a lover. The laurel wreath plaited around her head is the clue: it points to the art of poetry, while the motif of the head supported on one hand recalls Albrecht Dürer's copperplate engraving of "Melancholy". Totally absorbed in herself, her eyes closed, the girl seems to be filled with the kind of inner visions which it takes a poet to express in words. One could respond to this idealization of the art of poetry by remembering how dif ficult it can be to put pen to paper, or in the words of Pliny the Elder, "No day without a line".