So you probably heard of the story below, you mulled it over in your head as you gathered the facts. But I wanted to know who was the girl in the painting? I could not find out any information about “Portrait of a Girl” but I did find information about Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, I especially love his quote!
In later life, he remained a humble and modest man, apolitical and happy with his luck in life, and held close the belief that, “men should not puff themselves up with pride, whether they are emperors adding this or that province to their empires or painter who gain a reputation.”
Jean-Baptise-Camille Corot, Portrait of a Girl, 1857-8, which went missing on June 29, 2010 and was recovered weeks later. Image courtesy of the New York Times.
What began as a summer comedy of errors – an Upper East Side doorman finds a Corot painting missing on a courier’s drunken bender – took a strange turn earlier this month when the painting’s owner realized its co-owner may have been involved in its disappearance. The following is a summary of the news and events that have unfolded over the past few weeks in the case.
The story begins like this: on July 29th a doorman at 995 Fifth Avenue, near 81st Street, discovered a painting in the bushes in front of the building. The nineteenth-century painting, “Portrait of a Girl” by Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, whose estimated value is $1.4 million, was apparently lost hours earlier by an intoxicated courier, James Carl Haggerty. Thinking the artwork belonged to one of the building’s residents, doorman Franklin Puentes stored it inside his locker after unsuccessful attempts to locate its owner. Puentes then went on a three-week vacation. When he returned, he heard the buzz about the missing painting and promptly turned it over to the police.
Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot
Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot (French, 1796-1875)
Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot was born in Paris, the son of shopkeepers. For five years he served an apprenticeship in the drapery business before turning to art. From 1822-25 he studied first under Michallon and then landscape painter Victor Bertin. Corot believed an artist must develop his passions for nature and painted mainly out-of-doors.
Resources http://artobserved.com/2010/09/
http://www.jean-baptiste-camille-corot.org/biography.html
P.S I wonder if it was stolen on Wednesday because I can’t seem to get the girl from the Addams family out of my head!
Christina Ricci as Wednesday Addams.
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