The Evening Star

In the 1850s, Corot began to paint works that he sometimes referred to as "souvenirs," in which he tried not only to record his visual experience of a site but also to convey the sensations it evoked. Corot was inspired to paint this poetic composition after listening to a young woman singing verses from Alfred de Musset's poem "The Willow: A Fragment" (1830), in which the evening star is hailed as a distant messenger.

After watching Corot paint a much larger version of the subject (now in the Musée des Augustins in Toulouse, France), William T. Walters commissioned this smaller variation. It differs slightly from the artist's initial conception in its looser brushwork and duskier sky.