Executed in 1855 by Camille Corot, this painting shows the passage from Metamorphoses by Ovid where Actaeon surprises Diana bathing with her companions. Furious, the goddess transforms Actaeon into a stag. Actaeon flees and is killed, devoured by his own dogs.
The landscape dominates in this work and it is hard to spot Diana in the scene. Just a few elements allude to the goddess like her attribute, the crescent moon, hidden between the branches above the group of three young women frolicking in the water, and the presence of the two greyhounds.
This iconic work from the master of landscape stands out from those of his contemporaries who preferred working in the studio, in the pure tradition of historical landscape. Inspired by the countryside of the Paris region – from Fontainebleau Forest to the lakes around Avray – Corot sought to be close to nature in order to work from life. Encouraging a whole generation of young artists to follow his example, he is today considered as a precursor to the Barbizon painters and the Impressionists, for the divided brushstrokes you can see in the foreground.
Corot promoted landscape as a major genre in the artistic hierarchy and brought a poetic dimension to his work, as we can see by his taste for sfumato, or dissolving the contours into soft blended colours.