Collections: European Art: The River Seine at Mantes

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The River Seine at Mantes

Daubigny explores the coexistence of work and leisure as well as past and present in this view of Mantes, located on the Seine near Paris. While a fashionably dressed lady idly contemplates the placid waters of the river—perhaps looking for an ideal spot to cast her fishing line—the boat steaming toward the wide-arched bridge indicates the river’s function as a working waterway. Daubigny acknowledges both France’s historical past and its industrial future—a forecast of Impressionist concerns— by juxtaposing the Gothic towers and pitched roof of the town’s church with an active smokestack.


• Artist: Charles-François Daubigny, French, 1817-1878
• Medium: Oil on canvas
• Place Made: France
• Dates: ca. 1856
• Dimensions: 19 1/16 x 29 3/4 in. (48.4 x 75.6 cm) Frame: 33 1/16 x 43 3/4 x 4 in. (84 x 111.1 x 10.2 cm)
• Signature: Signed lower left: "Daubigny"
• Collections: European Art
• Museum Location: This item is on view in Beaux-Arts Court, South, 3rd Floor
• Accession Number: 33.271
• Credit Line: Gift of Cornelia E. and Jennie A. Donnellon
• Image: Overall, 33.271_SL1.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph, 2009
Charles-François Daubigny (French, 1817-1878). The River Seine at Mantes, ca. 1856. Oil on canvas, 19 1/16 x 29 3/4 in. (48.4 x 75.6 cm) Frame: 33 1/16 x 43 3/4 x 4 in. (84 x 111.1 x 10.2 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Cornelia E. and Jennie A. Donnellon, 33.271 (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 33.271_SL1.jpg)