In addition, his work became the prey of unscrupulous
dealers (as there is nothing easier to imitate superficially than a
Corot), and the mediocre pictures signed by his name are not always of
his workmanship. Such works apart, his art has given us a message from
the purest source of poetry and painting, couched in a language which
is thoroughly of our time; and in this year, which is the centenary of
his birth, it can be said that no other painter of the century, save
the graver Millet, has held fast that which was good in the art of the
past, and so enriched it by added truth and beauty as Corot. It
was fitting that when he lay dying as cheerfully as he had lived,
contented that he had "had good parents and good friends," beautiful
landscapes flitted before his eyes, "more beautiful than painting."
On the morning of February 22, 1875, his servant urged him to eat
to sustain his strength; but he gently shook his head, saying: "Papa
Corot will breakfast in heaven to-day."
[Illustration: THE EDGE OF THE FOREST (FONTAINEBLEAU). FROM A PAINTING
BY THEODORE ROUSSEAU.]
Eighteen years before, on December 22, 1867, there had died at
Barbizon, Theodore Rousseau, who, born in Paris, July 15, 1812, had
been the leader of the revolution in landscape painting, in which we
to-day count Corot, Daubigny, Dupre, Troyon, Diaz, Jacque, and others
who, with our mania for classification, we call the "Barbizon school.
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