Charles-François Daubigny

CHARLES-FRANÇOIS DAUBIGNY (Paris, 1817-1878).
"River landscape".
Oil on canvas.
Signed in the lower right corner.

The river landscape in tender presents remarkable similarities with the work "Bateaux sur l'Oise", a distinctive painting of Daubigny's language now in the Louvre Museum. In both pieces (the one in the French gallery with a greater degree of detail) the artist adopts a markedly scenographic language, with an intense and rich chromatism. He also deliberately chooses a specific time of day in which the light allows him to play with planes and nuances; thus, we see a partially cloudy sky, which opens at certain points to illuminate part of the earth, creating expressive hallmarks of light and shadow that serve to reinforce the impression of depth and three-dimensionality of the space. Its light is therefore very thoughtful and dramatic, again in the line of romantic theatricality.

Charles-François Daubigny was a leading member of the Barbizon School and a crucial figure considered a precursor of Impressionism. He initially painted in a traditional style, but from 1843 he settled in Barbizon to work directly in nature (en plein air), which marked a radical change in his work. He was a pioneer in painting from a floating studio, his famous boat called "Botin", as he sailed on the Seine River and the Oise, especially around Auvers-sur-Oise. His finest pictures, painted between 1864 and 1874, are mainly river views and careful landscapes with trees and ducks. His brushwork was remarkably loose and "poorly finished" (according to the scholars of the time), which presaged the Impressionist style. Daubigny is known for his support of the younger generation. During his exile in London because of the Franco-Prussian War (1870), he met Claude Monet, and then, back in Auvers, Paul Cézanne. It is believed that he influenced these future impressionists. He participated in the official Salons with mixed results. On occasion, he resigned from the jury in solidarity with the Impressionists, whose works were massively excluded. He is currently represented in institutions such as the Louvre Museum in Paris, the Musée d'Orsay in Paris, the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid, the MoMA in New York, the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes in Buenos Aires and the Walters Museum in Baltimore. His works can also be found at the Musée des Pontoise and the National Museum in Warsaw.