River Scene At Sunset By H.d. Corrodi

Oil on canvas
Framed; lower right, signed and dated: H. Corrodi, 1892

Herman Corrodi was a Swiss painter. He was the son of Salomon Corrodi. An obituary in the New York Times states that Hermann was born in Zurich, but his tombstone indicates that he was born in Frascati, near Rome.

Corrodi studied at the Accademia di S. Luca under his father, Salomon Corrodi (1810-1892) and in Paris (1872). He was commissioned to paint history by the British royal family and knew most of the European royalty of the time, including Queen Victoria. He travelled extensively in the Far East, including Egypt, Syria, Cyprus and Istanbul, which provided the subject matter for many of his paintings.

He was the brother of Arnold Corrodi. Originally a landscape painter in the academic style, much of Hermann's work is also typical of the nineteenth-century Orientalist style. In 1893 he was knighted "Accademico di Merito" by the Accademia di San Luca, where he had been a teacher.

Hermann Corrodi's father came to Rome at the beginning of the last century and settled there as a watercolourist. Hermann, who has just died, was born in the small town of Frascati, 12 miles from Rome. He inherited his father's talent, and every encouragement and aid to the development of his artistic faculties was given him. Like many other Roman artists, he was gifted with an eye-memory, certain effects of nature and certain impressions of subjects and landscapes remained clearly represented in his mind from the age of 6, and 20 years later he painted what he considers one of his best pictures from an impression received at that early age.

Like most other painters, Hermann Corrodi wanted to study the works of contemporary painters from other countries. Together with his younger brother Arnold, he was sent to Germany, and they also spent some time with the painter Calame in Geneva. But it was in Paris that they felt most useful. There they were possessed by a great enthusiasm for the French school, and from then on there was a complete change in their treatment of subjects and their mode of working.

Hermann became the painter of poetic landscapes. The Mediterranean, with its blue waters and sun-bleached shores, the life, movement and colour of the processions in the small towns during religious festivals, and the views near Rome in the ever-changing and ever-beautiful Campagna, were the subjects of choice for Corrodi's brush.