Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot

David William Traill Cargill, Lanark, Scotland
His wife, née Berthe Chopier (by descent)
Thence by descent to her nephew
Thence by descent to the present owners

One of the earliest known owners of this landscape was the well-known Scottish collector,  David William Traill Cargill (1872-1939).  During his lifetime, Cargill was active in various business ventures, many of which were centered in India.  The most famous was the Burmah Oil Company, which was founded by his father.  Cargill was also “an art collector of great discrimination” (The Glasgow Herald, September 7, 1939, his obituary).  During his lifetime he assembled an impressive collection of paintings, which included works by Corot, Manet, Monet, Renoir, Sisley and Pissarro, as well as the Post-Impressionists,  Cezanne, Gauguin, Seurat and Van Gogh.  Today, most of the paintings from the Cargill collection hang in museums around the world.

It was only natural that Cargill would have been attracted to this 1871 landscape by Corot.  With its informality and painterly quality, it provided the foundation for the Impressionist landscape, the very sort of painting that Cargill admired.