The Rider in the Woods, small plate

"The Rider in the Woods, small plate" by Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot (French, 1796-1875), created in 1854, exemplifies the artist's engagement with emerging photographic technologies in France. This print utilizes the unique cliché-verre technique, a hybrid process combining drawing and photography that gained traction among mid-19th-century artists. Corot created the image by drawing directly onto a glass plate coated with an opaque medium, carefully scratching away lines to expose the transparent glass beneath. This prepared plate was then placed like a negative onto light-sensitive material-in this instance, ivory photographic paper-and exposed to sunlight, resulting in a soft, tonal image resembling an etching.

The work depicts a solitary figure on horseback moving through a dense, atmospheric woodland. Corot, a master landscape artist known for his sensitive treatment of light, captured the moodiness and texture of the trees through the finely scratched lines of the cliché-verre. Unlike traditional etching or lithography, this process offered the artist immediate results and a nuanced range of tone, though production was typically limited to small editions, making these prints highly prized. Corot produced a significant body of work in this experimental medium during the 1850s and 1860s. This impression, which is one of the artist's earliest known successful prints utilizing this technique, resides in the permanent collection of the Art Institute of Chicago. Prints of the famed landscape master's work continue to be studied globally, with many accessible through public domain archives.