Tag Archives: Edith Corbet

Title: Sheep Grazing in the Dunes, on an Italian Coast

Artist: Edith Corbet (1846 – 1920),

Description: Landscape Art

Medium: oil on canvas

Dimensions: 83.5 x 203 cm. (33 x 80 in.)

What I love about this painting:

There is a softness to this image, and yet it feels as if we are there, viewing the beach and the sheep. We know it was painted in late spring, as the sheep have just been shorn, and a few lambs can be seen with their mothers. To the right of the scene, the sky has darkened, and a storm is moving in.

The beach grass, the color of the dunes, and the shades of the water reflecting the ever-changing colors of the sky feel real, perfectly recreated for us by the artist’s hands. She gives us a peaceful serene moment, a chance to just breathe deeply and let go of the stress of our modern lives.

This kind of day is familiar to me, a scene that could be found on many beaches here in my Northwestern part of the world. I love it when a brief storm moves in over the dunes, stirring the waters, and showing how the sky is the most important part of the scene. It’s as if the sky says to the sea, “You may be big and important, but I am larger and more powerful.”

Little is known about Edith’s life. She travelled a great deal and loved Italy. I suspect her first marriage, to illustrator Arthur Murch, was difficult, as he was in poor health much of the time. It has been said that while he was talented, he rarely finished a project. His reputation was based on the two illustrations he produced for Dalziels’ Bible Gallery, while Edith’s landscapes had begun to bring her some fame. Murch died in Germany, and most of Edith’s life at that time was in Italy.

By the time she painted this scene, in 1897, Edith and her second husband, Matthew Ridley Corbet, may have been living in England for at least part of the year.

About the Artist, via Wikipedia:

Edith Corbet née Edenborough (28 December 1846 – 1920) was a Victorian landscape painter, having close associations with the Macchiaioli group (also known as the Tuscans or Etruscans), who, in a break with tradition, painted outdoors in order to capture natural light effects and favoured a panoramic format for their paintings.

She married the Victorian painter and illustrator Arthur Murch and moved to Rome, where she painted with Giovanni Costa, leader of the Macchiaioli group. In 1876 they both stayed in Venice. Olivia Rossetti Agresti wrote: “Costa had a very high opinion of this artist’s gifts and used to remember with pleasure how on that occasion they used to go out together to paint from nature at Fusino“ (Agresti, 1904).

She frequently exhibited from 1880 to 1890 at the Grosvenor Gallery and the New Gallery. In 1891, after the death of her first husband, she married Matthew Ridley Corbet, one of the Macchiaioli group’s leading members, after which she exhibited mainly at the Royal Academy, visiting Italy and living in London for the remainder of her life. Corbet exhibited her work at the Palace of Fine Arts at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Illinois. She died in Hampstead, north London, in 1920. [1]

Credits and Attributions:

Image: Wikimedia Commons contributors, “File:Edith Corbet Sheep Grazing in the Dunes, on an Italian Coast.jpg,” Wikimedia Commons, the free media repository, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Edith_Corbet_Sheep_Grazing_in_the_Dunes,_on_an_Italian_Coast.jpg&oldid=617254333 (accessed June 2, 2022).