I find the world of Corot (see previous post) so evocative and tranquil that I'm posting another of his canvases, this one also dating from ca. 1850, called Le Sentier (The Lane). It's early spring, and the brisk breeze carries with it the scent of earth's renewal and the last vestiges of winter. We're in Ville-d'Avray, west of Paris, near where Corot lived.

“M. Corot's compositions," said Baudelaire, "which are always entirely free of pedantry, are seductive just because of their simplicity of color.” And Monet, of all people, said, "There is only one master here—Corot. We are nothing compared to him, nothing."

Or rather, he made it possible for Monet & Co. to be something.