Portrait of a Young Girl

The Portrait of a Young Girl by Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot is an oil on canvas painted between 1850 and 1859. This intimate and contemplative painting, a significant example of French figural work from the mid-nineteenth century, is held within the celebrated collection of the National Gallery of Art.

Corot, known primarily as a master of poetic landscapes, devoted significant effort throughout his career to portraiture and figural studies. Although the work dates to the 1850s, the stylistic foundation belongs to the cultural period stretching from 1826 to 1850, a transitional era when artists began moving away from the strictures of Neoclassicism toward the observational sincerity of Realism. This piece exemplifies Corot’s unique ability to bridge the formal requirements of traditional portraiture with an almost Impressionistic sensibility toward light and form.

The painting features a young sitter rendered with a restrained yet sophisticated palette. Corot eschews dramatic color contrasts, favoring subtle tonal variations that give the figure a quiet dignity. The technique employed uses delicate, scumbled brushstrokes, particularly visible in the background and the contours of the sitter’s face, softening the forms and creating an atmospheric quality distinct from more academic French contemporaries.

Corot's treatment of the subject captures a moment of introspection, emphasizing the psychological depth rather than merely recording physical likeness. The focus is purely on the girl, isolated against a simple, indeterminate background, highlighting the artist's keen interest in human subjects during this phase of his career. As a major work by Corot, and due to its age and stature as part of the National Gallery of Art collection, this canvas frequently appears in publications, and high-quality prints of the work are often available through public domain initiatives for study and appreciation.