Mantes- Deux Arches Du Pont Avec Un Cavalier 

Camille Corot painted this oil on canvas, "Mantes - Two Arches of the Bridge with a Rider", sometime in the mid-19th century. It shows a bridge in the French countryside, with figures on top and underneath. Corot was working at a time of great social change in France, especially industrialization and urbanization. He came from a bourgeois background but he was part of a larger group of artists interested in moving away from the prevailing academic style, which was promoted by institutions such as the École des Beaux-Arts. Here he paints nature, but in a way that doesn't idealize it like earlier landscape painting. The broken section of the bridge and the presence of the peasant on the ground suggest the impact of historical events and social class. Corot was part of the move towards Realism and later Impressionism. The history of art is also the history of social change. By exploring archival sources and social histories of 19th-century France, we can understand how Corot's painting reflects the changing society in which he lived.