Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot was born in Paris on 26 July, 1796. He was raised in a middle-class family in Rouen. He initially did a training as a cloth merchant, which he did not like. At the age of 26 he quit the job in order to become an artist. In 1822 Corot took painting classes by his successful peers A. E. Michallon and Victor Bertin. He made a lot of trips to Italy too. Back in Paris he used his impressions as an inspiration. After 1831 Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot regularly and very successfully presented his pieces in the salons of Paris. His contacts to the painters of Barbizon became much closer after the end of the 1940s, especially to Daubigny. Due to the gout, Corot had to slowly give up landscape painting. His later works are dominated by lady portraits, which he painted in a controlled and free manner. Corot passed away in Ville d'Avray on 22 February,1875.