La Marcellerie

Gaines Ruger Donoho mastered sketching en plein air (outdoors) in the picturesque outskirts of Paris. Grez-sur-Loing, seen here, was a popular destination for artists and musicians. Donoho focuses on an enclosed corner of a meadow, bordered
at its far side by a backlit screen of trees.

A single figure holding a scythe blends into the painting’s green tonalities and broad brushwork. France greatly expanded its railway system in the second half of the nineteenth century, making towns such as Grez-sur-Loing accessible to artists in search of bucolic subject matter.