A Souvenir of Ostia

"A Souvenir of Ostia" by Jean Baptiste Camille Corot is an exquisite example of the obscure printing technique known as cliché-verre. Developed in mid-19th century France, this experimental, hybrid medium merges the spontaneity of drawing with the reproducibility of photography. Corot created the image by drawing or etching into a light-sensitive collodion layer coated onto a glass plate, which was then exposed like a photographic negative onto sensitized paper. This process allowed the celebrated French master to capture the immediacy of a sketch while simultaneously generating fine art prints.

Though titled A Souvenir of Ostia, referencing the ancient port city near Rome, the resulting work is a serene, generalized landscape defined by soft tonal variations that capture the atmospheric effects central to Corot’s aesthetic. The technical execution of the cliché-verre technique yields rich blacks and delicate gray shadows, echoing the expressive qualities typically found in Corot’s preparatory drawings.

Corot was a major proponent of cliché-verre, producing dozens of compositions in this medium between the 1850s and 1870s. While the artist died in 1875, the 1921 date on this print suggests it was pulled posthumously from the preserved original glass negative, confirming the enduring interest in his distinctive graphic output. This particular impression of the work, classified as a print, is held in the renowned collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. As much of the work by this pivotal landscape artist is now widely available in the public domain, Corot’s influential approach to light and composition continues to shape subsequent generations of artists.