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River Scene

Charles-François Daubigny

European Art

Charles-François Daubigny was one of nineteenth-century France’s most accomplished landscape painters. He began to explore the river valleys outside Paris in the late 1850s from Le Bottin, his floating studio. His pictorial experiments would greatly influence Claude Monet and all other plein air painters of his time, including Oller.

For this scene, Daubigny selected a viewpoint in the center of the waterway, looking down a long stretch of the river and up toward the bank where herdsmen coax their cattle onto a barge. The tranquil water and the reassuringly peaceful coexistence of humankind and nature made such paintings highly popular with Daubigny’s urban clientele.

Charles-François Daubigny fue uno de los pintores más exitosos de paisajes del siglo diecinueve de Francia. Él comenzó a explorar los valles de los ríos fuera de París a finales de la década de 1850 desde Le Bottin, su taller flotante. Sus experimentos pictóricos influirían de sobremanera en Claude Monet y en todos los otros pintores de su época que pintaban al aire libre, incluyendo a Oller.

Para esta escena, Daubigny escogió un puesto de observación en el centro del río navegable, mirando hacia debajo de un largo estrecho del río y hacia arriba de la orilla del río, donde los vaqueros se encuentran arreando su ganado hacia una barcaza. El agua tranquila y la reconfortante coexistencia pacífica de la humanidad con la naturaleza lograron la gran popularidad de tales pinturas con la clientela urbana de Daubigny.

MEDIUM Oil on panel
  • Place Made: France
  • DATES 1859
    DIMENSIONS 14 1/4 x 25 3/4 in. (36.2 x 65.4 cm) frame: 25 3/4 x 37 x 4 3/4 in. (65.4 x 94 x 12.1 cm)  (show scale)
    SIGNATURE Signed and dated lower left: "Daubigny 1859"
    COLLECTIONS European Art
    ACCESSION NUMBER 21.134
    CREDIT LINE Bequest of William H. Herriman
    MUSEUM LOCATION This item is not on view
    CAPTION Charles-François Daubigny (Paris, France, 1817–1878, Paris, France). River Scene, 1859. Oil on panel, 14 1/4 x 25 3/4 in. (36.2 x 65.4 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Bequest of William H. Herriman, 21.134 (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 21.134_SL1.jpg)
    IMAGE overall, 21.134_SL1.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph, 2009
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