DANCE OF THE NYMPHS. If there is 

 something unreal and dreamlike about most 

 of Corot's paintings it is not because he 

 did not know how to paint nature as he saw it. 

 It was because he preferred the mist of the dawn 

 or the silver haze of late twilight to the harsh, 

 brilliant light of noonday, and threw over his 

 landscapes a delicate veil that makes them seem 

 part of a lighter, airier world. His quiet life was 

 reflected in his pictures, for he chose to paint 

 no raging seas, no storm-torn trees or lowering 

 clouds. He cared not at all for the melodramatic 

 in art, but chose usually to picture some quiet 

 lake bordered with soft trees, or a grass-grown 

 slope or meadow with patches of shade and of 

 sunshine. 



Frequently, as in this picture, he introduced 

 figures, but they partake of the airy, dreamlike 

 character of the landscape. The question is not 

 so much one of correct drawing and of accurate 

 proportions as of artistic blending do the figures 

 add to or detract from the general effect of light- 

 ness and charm? And in practically every instance 

 Corot was able to answer this question satis- 

 factorily and to make his nymphs or bathers as 

 much a part of the picture as the softly blurred 

 leaves of the trees. 



L. J. B. 





