Detail of The Burning of Sodom by Corot in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, August 2010

Artist: Camille Corot (French, Paris 1796–1875 Paris)

Title: The Burning of Sodom (formerly "The Destruction of Sodom")

Date: 1843 and 1857

Medium: Oil on canvas

Dimensions: 36 3/8 x 71 3/8 in. (92.4 x 181.3 cm)

Classification: Paintings

Credit Line: H. O. Havemeyer Collection, Bequest of Mrs. H. O. Havemeyer, 1929

Accession Number: 29.100.18


Gallery Label:

This scene, taken from Genesis (19:15–26), shows an angel in the sky hurling fire and brimstone down upon Sodom, to destroy the city for its wickedness. At the left, another angel leads Lot and his two daughters to safety. Behind them, Lot's wife, who looked back in regret despite a warning, has become a pillar of salt.

Years after Corot exhibited the painting at the Paris Salon of 1844, he cut it down substantially, reducing the sky and the landscape at right. He repainted the foreground in a darker palette and exhibited the revised canvas at the 1857 Salon. By then his stature ensured a better reception from the critics.

Corot based his figures on those in similar scenes by Raphael (Vatican) and Veronese (Musée du Louvre, Paris). The oddly shaped fountain derives from a study Corot made in the village of Mûr-en-Bretagne in the early 1840s.

Text from: www.metmuseum.org/Works_of_Art/collection_database/europe...