![Camille Corot - Marcoussis, Cows Grazing [c.1845-50]](http://c5.staticflickr.com/9/8474/29523726396_9391c07a35_b.jpg)
Corot visited Marcoussis, a village thirty kilometres south of Paris, on a number of occasions to visit his friend and fellow artist, Ernest Dumax, and to paint the surrounding landscape. Alfred Robaut suggests that the date for the present work is between 1845 and 1850, and his 1855 Salon submission, Souvenir de Marcoussis, près Montlhéry (circa 1855, Musée d’Orsay, Paris, acquired by Napoleon III) supports that Corot would have been there at this time. It is impossible to determine if Corot’s composition was painted en plein air or if his memory of the landscape was so vivid that he was able to reconstruct this spectacular sylvan landscape back in his Paris studio.
[Sotheby’s, New York - Oil on canvas, 41.3 x 75.2 cm]