The Sévres Road

Camille Corot's painting, stolen from the Louvre, May 1998 It might have always been meant that they walked completely away, this man on horse, woman with basket. With their backs to us and the painter, they are so private. But like those stories where children step right into a picture and, looking over their shoulders, see the consoling frame, these two would know the way home like the palms of their hands, the routine so ordinary it most encloses, no need for thought, only motion and the full sensation of sun on your flesh, along the usual road.