River Landscape with Moon, n. d.

In this horizontal-format oil sketch River Landscape with Moon, the French painter Charles François Daubigny (1817–1878) directly captures the natural impression of a nocturnal mood with loose brushstrokes. Light is spreading from the moon through clouds and treetops on the shore to the reflections in the water. The night sky, which takes up about two-thirds of the picture surface, is depicted in shades of blue-gray going into violet, the trees in dark shades of green and brown. It is especially in the pale light of the moon, its aureole glowing in delicate pink and orange tones, that the painter’s romantic conception of landscape becomes palpable. Daubigny had been in contact with the Barbizon painters, who are regarded as pioneers of French Impressionism, since 1843. What he had in common with them, was the practice of painting out in nature at all times of the day and seasons of the year. This sketch was possibly was made on the houseboat, which the artist had built for himself in 1856.

AGW, 2021