To offer you even more information about the museum and Mesdag’s art collection, and serve you better, we use cookies. By clicking ‘Accept’, you are giving us permission to use these cookies. Cookies help us to ensure that the website works properly. We also analyse how the website is used, so that we can make any necessary improvements. Advertisements can also be displayed tailored to your interests. And finally, we use cookies to display videos, forms, Google Maps and other embedded content.
Find out more about our cookies.

Home Language
  • Nederlands English
  • Plan your visit
  • To see
  • To do
  • About Mesdag and his collection
  • Highlights of the collection
  • Locations to hire
  • More about the museum
Contact Disclaimer Privacy & Cookies
Back to top
Menu
Highlights of the collection

This image is
unavailable

Meer informatie

Abandoned Quarry
Camille Corot, 1850

  • Download Image
    small medium large
    • Terms and conditions (pdf)
    • For commercial use please contact us (email)
  • Share this work
    Facebook (Opens in new window) Twitter (Opens in new window) Pinterest (Opens in new window) E-mail (Opens your Emailclient)

Abandoned Quarry

Camille Corot (1796 - 1875), c. 1850

oil on paper on canvas, 29 cm x 43 cm
The Mesdag Collection, The Hague


Corot here painted an unremarkable rock mass and brushwood with deft strokes of the brush. It is a fine example of the new approach to landscape painting that gained ground in the course of the 19th century.

Corot wanted to render nature as it appeared at a given moment of the day. This was a radical departure from his predecessors, who depicted idealized and highly refined landscapes. With his innovative notions he unleashed a veritable artistic revolution in painting.

In the beginning Corot was sharply criticized. But the celebrated French writer and critic Charles Baudelaire came to his defence. He argued, ‘... that in general what is “completed” is not “finished” and that a thing “finished” in detail may well lack the unity of a “completed” thing ... from all of which it follows that M. Corot paints like the great masters.’

See also:

  • painting
  • landscape (representation)
  • Camille Corot

Object number
hwm0062
Credits
The Mesdag Collection, The Hague
Dimensions
29cm x 43cm, 54.7cm x 68.5cm, 9.5cm