Beach near Etretat

The work passed through Aimé Diot’s collection, was resold at Galerie Georges Petit in 1919 as La Plage, and entered the holdings of Rosenthal before Dr.

Beach near Etretat was painted by Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot in 1872 as an oil on canvas landscape. It entered the Paris trade in 1894 when F. Stumpf sold it at Hôtel Drouot as Marine, later bought by the Tempelaere brothers. The work passed through Aimé Diot’s collection, was resold at Galerie Georges Petit in 1919 as La Plage, and entered the holdings of Rosenthal before Dr. George Viau acquired it in 1934.

Viau’s estate sold it in 1942, after which it was owned by Baron Pellenc and then André Schoëller. Captain Edward H. Molyneux possessed the painting by 1952, and it was exhibited in French Paintings from the Molyneux Collection that year. In 1955 it was sold to Ailsa Mellon Bruce, and bequeathed to the National Gallery of Art in 1970.

Beach near Etretat is held by the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., having entered the collection as a 1970 bequest from Ailsa Mellon Bruce, who had purchased it in 1955 from Captain Edward H. Molyneux. Earlier in its provenance, the canvas passed through French private collections, including those of F. Stumpf, Aimé Diot, Nicolas Auguste Hazard, Dr. George Viau, Baron Pellenc, and André Schoëller, before reaching Molyneux by 1952. The documented exhibition history includes its display in the 1952 presentation French Paintings from the Molyneux Collection at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.