Landscape in the Roman Campagna

In this panoramic view of sky and earth, Daubigny explores the shifting patterns of light and shade that enliven the landscape as darkened clouds move across the sky. He further enhances the sensation of movement by cropping the cloud line, suggesting that the billowing masses glide beyond the picture plane and into the viewer’s space. Executed early in Daubigny’s career, this work, with its hard-edged contours and seamless surface, reveals the painter’s training in Neoclassical landscape. Later works by Daubigny on display in these galleries demonstrate his move toward the gestural handling of naturalistic landscape painting, and away from the idealization seen here.