Fridge magnet featuring The Artist's Mother (Marie Françoise Oberson, 1769 - 1851) by Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot, part of the National Galleries of Scotland collection.
Corot’s mother Marie Françoise was born in Switzerland. Along with her husband Louis-Jacques Corot, she ran a milliner's shop in the Rue du Bac in Paris, where Corot and his sister were brought up. The business was extremely successful and afforded the young Corot considerable financial independence when he decided to pursue a career as a painter.
Corot was devoted to his mother, referring to her as ‘la belle dame’ (the beautiful lady). He later spent all his evenings with her when he was in Paris until her death in 1851 (aged 82). Judging from her clothing and hairstyle in this picture, it was probably painted around 1835-40, when she would have been in her late-sixties.
Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot (July 16, 1796 – February 22, 1875) was a French landscape and portrait painter as well as a printmaker in etching.
