Judith

In a vertical composition, a woman in a long, pinkish gown stands with her head bowed. She wears an ornament on her head, a stone archway can be seen in the back on the left, and a small sail appears at the distant shore.

Judith is a patriotic heroine of the Jewish people and one of the main subjects of Western painting. Corot began painting figures in the last fifteen years of his life. At first he painted people close to him, such as family and friends, in the manner of portraits, but he gradually came to paint figures lost in quiet reverie, with a poetic atmosphere. This work is said to show that style well.

Corot was a painter of the Barbizon school who traveled in Europe sketching nature and recomposed his pictures in the studio. His handling of light is said to have opened the way to Impressionism.