Charlie Cobb - Artist

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Corot 'The Four Times of Day':

Leighton House

THE PAINTINGS

Perhaps the most notable aspect of these paintings is the freedom of the brushwork, which considering they were all executed in a single week is perhaps not surprising.

The difficulty with doing a straight copy of any painting, is that the copy can become somewhat 'bogged down' with the constraints of staying true to the original, and there is a serious risk that the painting will lose any of the life of the original.

With the creation of any artwork there is (or should be) the excitement of discovery, and when it goes well, the feeling of not knowing exactly how you got there, or if you could do it again.

With copying, it is almost the opposite, you have to really work backwards in working out how the originals were started: What colours were used in the under-painting? Were subsequent layers painted wet-on-wet? Were the colours created by the overlaying of different glazes? How was each colour mixed and using which original pigments?

I decided therefore, very early on to approach the paintings as recreations rather than exact copies. This is to say that my priority was to emulate the energy, excitement, life and light of these four paintings completed within a week at the studio at Fontainebleau around 1858.

The National Gallery provided access and information to the paintings, although unlike some of the other Corot paintings within their collection, these have not been analysed as they are on loan. This meant working out how the myriad greens and other colours were created was a process of trial and error, mixing numerous combinations while sitting in front of the paintings.

Although complicated by the differences of aging, varnishes and different light conditions, this process did allow a period of rehearsal and a chance to get a feel for how Corot mixed his paint. Drawing was also a very important way of looking and connecting to the paintings, building up a detailed mental picture.