Camille Corot

Corot’s approach to landscape painting made him a crucial precursor to Impressionism. He taught Pissarro (briefly), advised Morisot (whose mother invited him to dinner every Tuesday), influenced Redon, and was admired by Delacroix (Corot gave him a list of models and their addresses) and Monet. In Paris, he and his good friends Courbet and Daumier were regulars at the Brasserie Andler (also Pissarro, whom he warned against marriage, and Baudelaire, who wrote supportively about him). Rousseau, Millet, Daubigny and Daumier were all Barbizon-connected friends; the famously generous Corot helped Millet’s widow as well as the blind impoverished Daumier.