Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot: A painter's painting

This picture, titled ‘Italian Woman, or Woman with Yellow Sleeve (L'Italienne)’, was painted in about 1870 by the French painter Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot (1796-1875).

Although best known as a landscape painter, Corot also produced numerous figure studies during his career, as well as portraits. In the 1850s, figure painting became an increasingly important part of his painting practice. 

In this striking three-quarter view, Corot captures the likeness of a supremely poised and elegant young woman, dressed in traditional Italian costume.

If we look closely at the bottom-right corner of the painting, we can see the young woman's right hand curled around the handle of a mirror.

While with her left hand she appears to be gently caressing a lock of her hair.

She wears a white blouse under a black velvet bodice which is trimmed with red ribbon. Over her arms we see yellow sleeves decorated with a blue bow.

Corot was particularly interested in Italian costume and kept assorted articles of dress in his studio for his models to wear. He even requested that clothing be sent to him from Rome. 

He also often featured the same costumes across multiple studies. This black bodice, for example, belongs to a dress which can be seen in its entirety in 'The Reader', painted in 1868 and in the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Art.

The sleeves, sometimes without the blue ribbons shown here, can be seen in a number of studies, of which the earliest is 'The Woman with a Pansy' (1855–8, Denver Museum of Art).  

Corot was not so interested with the authenticity of the costumes in his studies, but rather with the exquisite juxtaposition of colours and texture that these costumes create.

An artist at the forefront of modern British figurative art, Lucian Freud is widely renowned for his powerful portraits and nudes, which often feature his distinctive, thick application of paint - a technique referred to as impasto.

As well as being an artist, Freud was also a collector of art. Freud displayed works which he collected in his home in Kensington, including Corot's ‘Italian Woman’ which was hung prominently above a fireplace on the top floor of the house.  

Lucian Freud's connection with the National Gallery stretches back to his earliest days in London. After his Jewish family fled Nazi Germany and arrived in Great Britain in 1933, Freud frequently visited the Gallery to spend time amongst its paintings.