View in Italy

Former TitleView of Subiaco

Formerly attributed to Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot (French, 1796 - 1875)

Dateca. 1850

MediumOil on canvas

DimensionsUnframed: 16 1/8 × 12 7/8 × 7/8 inches (40.97 × 32.69 × 2.22 cm)
Framed: 20 3/16 × 20 3/16 × 3 1/4 inches (51.28 × 51.28 × 8.26 cm)

Credit LinePurchase: William Rockhill Nelson Trust

Object number32-76

On View

On view

Gallery Location

Collections

European Art

Terms

DescriptionA road, which extends the width of the foreground plane, leads down to a wall at the center of the canvas, beyond which is an arched door and above it, a painted religious shrine. Poplar trees, one at left, several more to the right of the wall that boders the road at right. A tower with an inclined roof extends to the area of the practically cloudless sky. In the background, and extending along the width of the canvas are mountains of blue and violet.Exhibition History

Exhibition History

Landscapes of the European War Theatre , The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, January-February 13, 1944, no cat., erroneously as by Corot, as View of Subiaco.

Exhibition in conjunction with the Consumers Cooperative Association's 30th Annual Meeting , Municipal Auditorium, Kansas City, MO, December 2-5, 1958, no cat.

Gallery Label

This enigmatic image represents the ancient hill town of Subiaco to the east of Rome. A road, extending the width of the foreground plane, leads back towards an arched door and, above it, a painted religious shrine. Although clearly naturalistic, the work has a strong sense of patterned geometry. The picture was once attributed to Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, who did spend time in Subiaco in 1827. This attribution has been discounted largely on account of a forged Corot signature which has subsequently been removed. The sharply receding perspectival construction is also uncharacteristic of Corot's early Italian sketches. The work was probably painted by a French artist who formed part of the international colony of artists at Rome at mid-century. Research is ongoing to establish the painting's correct authorship.

Provenance

[Paul?] Jungers (d. ca. 1934), Paris, by November 11, 1931 [1];

With Richard Owen, Paris, by November 11, 1931-May 1, 1932;

Purchased from Richard Owen, through Harold Woodbury Parsons, by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1932, erroneously as by Corot [2].

NOTES:

[1] The spelling of this constituent’s name varies, but is most often found as Jungers. See K. E. Maison, Honoré Daumier Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings, Watercolours and Drawings (London: Thames and Hudson, 1968), no. I-7, I-172, and I-194. For the possible first name Paul, see deaccession proposal for Felix Ziem, Still Life with Fish, 32-178, NAMA registrar files. In December 1931, Paris-based art dealer and specialist in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century drawings, Richard Owen (1873-1946), was looking for buyers for four Daumier pictures he had recently purchased from a “well-known French collector [Jungers]”. See correspondence from Harold Woodbury Parsons, NAMA art agent, to J. C. Nichols, NAMA trustee, December 11, 1931, NAMA curatorial files. Through the assistance of Owen, NAMA acquired the Daumier and several other works from this collector. See Harold Woodbury Parsons to William Mathewson Milliken, former director of the Cleveland Museum of Art, June 10, 1932, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives.

[2] Press reports show that the painting was in Kansas City by January 1932, though it was not officially accessioned until May. See “Italian Landscape by Corot for William Rockhill Nelson Gallery,” Kansas City Star 52, no. 120 (January 15, 1932): 17, (repro.), erroneously as by Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot. The painting was placed on view at the Kansas City Art Institute as of February 8, 1932. See M[inna] K. P[owell], “Art: A Large Sunday Crowd at the Kansas City Art Institute Sees the Midwestern Show and Old Masters, Including Five Lent by Maxwell Blake; George Ford Morris’s Paintings of Horses and Dogs are Shown at Lighton Studios,” Kansas City Times 95, no. 33 (February 8, 1932): 6, erroneously as by Corot.

Published References

“Italian Landscape by Corot for William Rockhill Nelson Gallery,” Kansas City Star 52, no. 120 (January 15, 1932): 17, (repro.), erroneously as by Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot.

“The Nelson Collection Grows,” Kansas City Star 52, no. 120 (January 15, 1932): D, erroneously as by Corot.

“Art News,” Kansas City Journal-Post 78, no. 224 (January 17, 1932): 2-C, erroneously as by Corot.

“Kansas City Museum Acquires Nine More Works from Nelson Fund,” Art Digest 6, no. 9 (February 1, 1932): 7, (repro.), erroneously as by J.B.C. Corot, Italian Scene.

M[inna] K. P[owell], “Art: A Large Sunday Crowd at the Kansas City Art Institute Sees the Midwestern Show and Old Masters, Including Five Lent by Maxwell Blake; George Ford Morris’s Paintings of Horses and Dogs are Shown at Lighton Studios,” Kansas City Times 95, no. 33 (February 8, 1932): 6, erroneously as by Corot.

“Art: Two Noted European Scholars Visit the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Are Led to Comment Freely on the Comparative Value of the Paintings in the Collection,” Kansas City Star 52, no. 185 (March 20, 1932): 11A, erroneously as by Corot, Italian Scene.

“M. Claudel in Rich Land: A Desire to See Harvest Expressed by Ambassador; The Visitor Goes to View the Kansas City Art Collection and Sees Some Works of His Countrymen,” Kansas City Times 95, no. 70 (March 22, 1932): 11, erroneously as by Corot.

“Books That Will Give Kansas Citians True Appreciation of Nelson Gallery,” Kansas City Star 53, no. 330 (August 13, 1933): 8-D, erroneously as by Corot.

“Nelson Gallery of Art Special Number,” Art Digest 8, no. 5 (December 1, 1933): 13, 20-21, (repro.), erroneously as by J.B.C. Corot, Italian Scene and View of Subiaco.

Minna K. Powell, “The First Exhibition of the Great Art Treasures: Paintings and Sculpture, Tapestries and Panels, Period Rooms and Beautiful Galleries are Revealed in the Collections Now Housed in the Nelson-Atkins Museum,” Kansas City Star 54, no. 84 (December 10, 1933): 4C, erroneously as by Corot.

“$15,000,000 Nelson Art Gallery Opens: Gift of Kansas City Star Publisher—Museum Has Many Innovations,” Boston Evening Transcript, no. 288 (December 11, 1933): 11, erroneously as by Corot.

“Art Critics View Nelson Gallery: Preview of Edifice, Costing $15,000,000 With Contents, Held at Kansas City; Filled with Treasures; Classical Structure on Landscaped Tract Provides All Comforts for Visitors,” New York Times 83, no. 27,715 (December 11, 1933): 24L, erroneously as by Corot.

“Nelson Gallery of Art Opened at Kansas City: $14,000,000 Gift of ‘Star’ Publisher and His Heirs Already Fully Furnished; Has Many Innovations; Oriental, Roman, Colonial Objects World Famous,” New York Herald Tribune 93, no. 31,802 (December 11, 1933): 12, erroneously as by Corot, Italian Scene.

J. S. B., “The Nelson Gallery of Art Seen Thru [sic] Eyes of a Novice,” Clay Center Dispatch, no. 2 (December 13, 1933): 2, erroneously as by Corot.

“Dreams of the Beauty of Art to Life in the Nelson Gallery,” Kansas City Star 54, no. 88 (December 14, 1933): 19, erroneously as by Corot.

“Nelson Gallery of Art Opens,” Editor and Publisher 66, no. 31 (December 16, 1933): 10, erroneously as by Corot.

Paul V. Beckley, “Art News,” Kansas City Journal-Post, no. 193 (December 17, 1933): 2C, erroneously as by Corot, View of Subiaco.

The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, Handbook of the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1933), 41, 50, (repro.), erroneously as by Corot, View of Subiaco.

Ellen Josephine Green, “Among the Fine Arts,” Musical Bulletin 22, no. 4 (January 1934): 9, erroneously as by Corot.

A.J. Philpott, “Kansas City Now in Art Center Class: Nelson Gallery, Just Opened, Contains Remarkable Collection of Paintings, Both Foreign and American,” Boston Sunday Globe 125, no. 14 (January 14, 1934): 16, erroneously as by Corot.

“In Gallery and Studio: News and Views of the Week in Art,” Kansas City Star 54, no. 264 (June 8, 1934): 23, erroneously as by Corot.

Ellen Josephine Green, “The Fine Arts,” Musical Bulletin 23, no. 2 (November 1934): 8, erroneously as by Corot, Subiaco.

“Women’s Club Calendar: Wednesday,” Kansas City Star 55, no. 111 (January 6, 1935): 11C, erroneously as by Corot, View of Subiaco.

“Visitors as Well as the Art Interest a Gallery Observer: A Falling Dime, a Boy Copying a Corot Masterpiece, a Student of Great Pictures, Gum Chewing Girls, Boys Who Desire to Smoke, an Elderly Couple, in the Day’s Kaleidoscope,” Kansas City Star 56, no. 119 (January 14, 1936): 9, erroneously as by Corot, View of Subiaco.

“Club Women to Gallery: Art Collection Wins Praise of 745 Visitors; The American Wing and the Oak Hall Room Are Centers of Attraction for the Federation Delegates,” Kansas City Times 101, no. 116 (May 16, 1938): 8, erroneously as by Jean Baptiste Corot, View of Subiaco.

The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, The William Rockhill Nelson Collection, 2nd ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1941), 168, erroneously as by Corot, View of Subiaco.

“Temporary Exhibitions: Landscapes of the European War Theatre,” Gallery News (The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts) 10, no. 5 (January 1944): 2, erroneously as by Corot, View of Subiaco.

H.C.H., “Scenes of Old Europe: Nelson Gallery Presents a Continent As It Was; Locales of Paintings Made Before Bombs Fell Are Designated on Map at Exhibit,” Kansas City Star 107, no. 6 (January 7, 1944): 4, erroneously as by J.B.C. Corot, View of Subiaco.

Landon Laird, “About Town,” Kansas City Times 115, no. 56 (March 5, 1952): 4, erroneously as by Corot, Subiaco.

Winifred Shields, “Art and Artists: Mild-Mannered Frenchman Had Success in Art, Even Financially; Poetic Quality Marks the Landscapes of Camille Corot, Who, Ignoring the Turbulence of His Era, Painted Only Beauty in the Woods of Fontainebleau,” Kansas City Star 74, no. 1 (September 18, 1953): 22, erroneously as by Corot, View of Subiaco .

Ross E. Taggart, ed., Handbook of the Collections in the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts , 4th ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1959), 260, erroneously as by Corot, View of Subiaco.

Ross E. Taggart and George L. McKenna, eds., Handbook of the Collections in The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, Kansas City, Missouri , vol. 1, Art of the Occident, 5th ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1973), 257, erroneously as by Corot, View of Subiaco.

Donald Hoffmann, “A fresh look at the Nelson: Painting, rearranging give new perspective to exhibits,” Kansas City Star 104, no. 78 (December 18, 1983): 3-I, erroneously as by Corot.

Alice Thorson, “The Nelson Celebrates its 60th: Museum built its reputation virtually from ground zero,” Kansas City Star 113, no. 304 (July 18, 1993): J4, erroneously as by Corot.

Information about a particular artwork or image, including provenance information, is based upon historic information and may not be currently accurate or complete. Research on artwork and images is an ongoing process, and the information about a particular artwork or image may not reflect the most current information available to the Museum. If you notice a mistake or have additional information about a particular artwork or image, please e-mail provenance@nelson-atkins.org.