This small view was probably painted on the occasion of an outing in the vicinity of Narni, or possibly Orte, where Corot painted several views at this time. It was on these journeys into the Campagna that the artist evolved one of his most important contributions to the technique of landscape painting, by avoiding a detailed examination and instead presenting the foreground through painted analysis of the light and color values. The artist understood that an observer of a distant view did not see what was actually at his feet, as the young Théodore Rousseau observed in 1830. This is particularly evident the present work with the sketchy foreground contrasting with the more carefully articulated distant view across the river curling towards a distant hill-top village. The painting was almost certainly one of the several oil sketches made on canvas at this time, but unlike those which remained in his studio (and were subsequently included in the studio Vente), he came back to this work at the time of his third Roman trip, in order to complete the painting for the market. A technical examination of the work suggests that the artist completed the tree on the right-side of the copse at left, and also worked-up the sky to its present, more finished appearance.

1) See Peter Galassi, Corot in Italy, New Haven and London, 1991, p. 90.
2) Letter dated March 1826 in Moreau-Nélaton, Corot raconté par lui même. See also Galassi, op. cit., p. 134.