Souvenir of Bas-Breau (Souvenir du Bas-Breau)

Souvenir of Bas-Breau (Souvenir du Bas-Breau) is a significant print created by Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot in 1858. This work belongs to a rare and experimental group of graphic works utilizing the innovative medium known as cliché-verre (glass print). Unlike traditional reproductive methods like etching or engraving, the cliché-verre process required Corot to coat a glass plate with an opaque ground, then draw directly onto the surface with a sharp stylus to selectively expose the glass. The resulting plate functioned as a negative, allowing the composition to be photographically printed onto sensitized paper.

This technique, which Corot experimented with extensively between the years 1851 to 1875, yielded images that uniquely fused the spontaneity of drawing with the subtle tonal gradations of early photography. The soft, atmospheric quality of the print captures the nuanced light and intimate feel characteristic of Corot’s landscape studies. Although details of the Bas-Breau scene are rendered with clarity, the photographic printing process lends the work a delicate, painterly texture distinct from the sharply defined lines of conventional prints.

Corot, alongside contemporaries such as Charles-François Daubigny, was a key figure in integrating the cliché-verre into French art practice, exploring how the method could provide a more direct and personal means of duplicating his naturalistic studies. His adoption of this technology provides critical insight into the relationship between drawing, early photography, and the proliferation of fine art prints in the mid-nineteenth century. This particular version of Souvenir of Bas-Breau demonstrates Corot's commitment to capturing transient natural light within an innovative format, and is held in the collection of the National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.