Ville d’Avray.Paysans causant sur le chemin longeant L’étang c. 1860 - 1865

Here is Camille Corot’s oil on canvas painting depicting peasants conversing on a path along a pond in Ville d’Avray. Corot painted during a time of significant social change in France. The figures are rendered as archetypes of rural labor; their existence is intrinsically tied to the landscape. Note how they are painted from the back. Their anonymity removes their individuality and focuses our attention instead on their role in the landscape and by extension, in French society. There's an undeniable tension between the idealization of rural life and the socio-economic realities faced by the peasant class. The romanticized view of the countryside offered an escape from the industrialized urban centers but also obscured the hardships of rural existence. Corot once said, "I never lost sight of nature; I try to do nothing else but imitate it." Ultimately, this painting is a window into the complex relationship between identity, labor, and the romanticized ideal of rural life in 19th-century France.