The River Seine at Mantes

Charles-François Daubigny explores the coexistence of work and leisure in this view of Mantes, located on the Seine near Paris. A middleclass woman with a fishing rod approaches the river, while the boat steaming toward the bridge indicates the river’s function as a working waterway. Another figure in the background wears the blue jacket traditionally worn by rural French laborers. Juxtaposing the Gothic towers and pitched roof of the town’s church with an active smokestack, Daubigny also acknowledges France’s historical past and its industrial present.