Books w/ Tom Richards - Corot in Italy by Peter Galassi

A Book Recommendation featured on The FAA Collective Patreon

Dear Patrons,

This week we are pleased to present you a book review by Tom Richards.

Tom is Assistant Director at The Florence Academy of Art and Director of the Art History program.  He is also a painter and works on commission in his studio in Florence, Italy.

We asked Tom to recommend a book that would appropriately cap off our season dedicated to landscape painting. We hope his words will inspire you to create your own landscapes, and/or increase your appreciation for the genre.

Happy reading!

“The book I have chosen to review is called Corot in Italy, by Peter Galassi, published by Yale in 1996. 

For anyone interested in landscape painting, I think this is an essential book to have in your library. It is not a how-to manual on the practice of landscape painting, but the paintings, and perhaps even more interestingly, the chapter on drawings, with its excellent reproductions, serve as a great guide to both students and experienced painters.

The value of these images is particularly evident when considering Corot’s sense of composition: here the book's numerous black and white images are especially helpful. In these the eye grasps the composition, without color to distract from seeing the essential forms and overall design as composed by the artist.

The early chapters of the book examine the history of plein air painting in Italy and beyond. Looking at a variety of artists, particularly Claude Lorraine. Corot’s work is given historical context through the paintings of his contemporaries, like Pierre-Henri de Valenciennes and Achille Etna Michallon. Today’s artists benefit by looking at how these painters approached their outside work. Were the little studies that we enjoy today considered finished work or were they studies for bigger paintings? Did artists work on the spot or were they producing their landscapes in the studio? I believe finding the answers to these questions through good scholarly investigation can provide practical solutions for contemporary landscape painters.

The book mainly concentrates on Corot’s work in and around Rome (although he also painted in Tuscany and as far up as Venice). Corot came to Italy in 1825; he would have travelled on horseback, and maybe part of the journey by sea, so it was slower than today’s fast-paced travel, with lots of stopping off points. Among the really significant spots, and perhaps among the ones that have changed the least overtime, is the forum in Rome and the area around Volterra. I know a number of painters who have gone to find some of Corot's spots to find some ruined by motorways or power lines, but some of the spots in parks and gardens in and around Rome are still very close today to what they were in Corot’s time.

If you’re going out to paint landscapes this summer, it’s hard to think about a better way to spend a day at your easel in the ancient town of Volterra, which is about an hour away from Florence to the south-west, with a copy of Corot in Italy lying open at the appropriate page as guidance and inspiration."

More about Tom:

Tom Richards was born in London in 1982. In addition to his experience as a painter he has an MA in Art History from the University of St Andrews, graduating in 2005. Since then Tom has divided his time between London and Florence. In recent years he has exhibited his work in London and undertaken numerous commissions in Europe and beyond. Before joining the Florence Academy he trained extensively with Charles H. Cecil, a former colleague of Daniel Graves.

To learn more about Tom and his work please visit:

Instagram: @tominflorence

Website: www.tawrichards.com

FAA Gallery: www.florenceacademyofart.com/alumni-gallery/tom-richards