Daubigny began exhibiting his work regularly at the Salon in 1838, and by the early 1850s he had achieved considerable success as a landscape painter. Water figures prominently in his imagery—notably, in his riverscapes painted from the vantage point of his studio-boat.
This painting's flickering brushwork and lightened palette relate it to the works of the Impressionists, whose influence on Daubigny grew out of his contact with Pissarro and Monet in the 1860s and early 1870s.
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Title:Landscape with a Sunlit Stream
Artist:Charles-François Daubigny (French, Paris 1817–1878 Paris)
Date:ca. 1877
Medium:Oil on canvas
Dimensions:25 1/8 x 18 7/8 in. (63.8 x 47.9 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:Bequest of Martha T. Fiske Collord, in memory of her first husband, Josiah M. Fiske, 1908
Accession Number:08.136.4
Inscription: Signed (lower left): Daubigny.
Mrs. A. B. Blodgett, Philadelphia (in 1904); Martha T. Fiske Collord, New York (until d. 1908)
Lexington. University Art Gallery, University of Kentucky. "The Nineteenth-Century Landscape," October 16–November 16, 1955, no catalogue.
East Hampton, N.Y. Guild Hall. "Trees in Art," July 18–August 13, 1957, no. 13 (as
"Landscape").
San Francisco. California Palace of the Legion of Honor. "Barbizon Revisited," September 27–November 4, 1962, no. 36.
Toledo Museum of Art. "Barbizon Revisited," November 20–December 27, 1962, no. 36.
Cleveland Museum of Art. "Barbizon Revisited," January 15–February 24, 1963, no. 36.
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. "Barbizon Revisited," March 14–April 28, 1963, no. 36.
Oshkosh, Wis. Paine Art Center & Arboretum. "Charles François Daubigny," May 1–31, 1964, no. 73.
New York. Gallery of Modern Art. "Charles François Daubigny," June 16–August 2, 1964, no. 73.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Barbizon: French Landscapes of the Nineteenth Century," February 4–May 10, 1992, no catalogue.
Albany. New York State Museum. "French Painters of Nature; The Barbizon School: Landscapes from The Metropolitan Museum of Art," May 22–August 22, 2004, no catalogue.
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. "The Masterpieces of French Painting from The Metropolitan Museum of Art: 1800–1920," February 4–May 6, 2007, no. 47.
Berlin. Neue Nationalgalerie. "Französische Meisterwerke des 19. Jahrhunderts aus dem Metropolitan Museum of Art," June 1–October 7, 2007, unnumbered cat.
Cincinnati. Taft Museum of Art. "Daubigny, Monet, Van Gogh: Impressions of Landscape," February 20–May 29, 2016, unnumbered cat. (fig. 28).
Emile Michel. "A propos d'une lettre de Ch.-Fr. Daubigny." L'art 63 (December 1904), inside front cover, ill. opp. p. 566 (etching by Th. Chauvel after the painting), as "Printemps," in the collection of Mme A.-B. Blodgett.
B[ryson]. B[urroughs]. "Bequest of the Late Mrs. Martha T. Fiske Collord." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 3 (November 1908), p. 200, ill., as "Landscape"; calls it an unusual Daubigny.
Josephine L. Allen and Elizabeth E. Gardner. A Concise Catalogue of the European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1954, p. 27.
Robert L. Herbert. Barbizon Revisited. Exh. cat., California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco. Boston, 1962, p. 111, no. 36, ill. p. 120, dates it about 1877, stating that "the composition harks back to those of the early fifties, but has the crisp directness and humid greens of Daubigny's late Auvers palette".
Charles-François Daubigny. Exh. cat., Paine Art Center. Oshkosh, Wisc., 1964, unpaginated, no. 73, dates it about 1873–77.
Charles Sterling and Margaretta M. Salinger. French Paintings: A Catalogue of the Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Vol. 2, XIX Century. New York, 1966, p. 101, ill., call it "Landscape with a Sunlit Stream" and date it probably about 1877; compare it to a painting of a similar scene in the Museum Mesdag, The Hague (about 1877; H209).
Madeleine Fidell-Beaufort and Janine Bailly-Herzberg. Daubigny. Paris, 1975, pp. 138–39, no. 64, ill., date it about 1860.
Robert Hellebranth. Charles-François Daubigny, 1817–1878. Morges, Switzerland, 1976, p. 79, no. 211, ill., calls it "Paysage près de Valmondois".
Charles Price. Letter to Anne Wagner. January 11, 1980, dates it about 1872, based on its color and handling.
Katharine Baetjer. European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Artists Born Before 1865: A Summary Catalogue. New York, 1995, p. 423, ill.
Kathryn Calley Galitz inThe Masterpieces of French Painting from The Metropolitan Museum of Art: 1800–1920. Exh. cat., Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. New York, 2007, pp. 71, 204, no. 47, ill. (color and black and white).
Kathryn Calley Galitz inMasterpieces of European Painting, 1800–1920, in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2007, pp. 83, 237, no. 77, ill. (color and black and white).
Fronia E. Wissman inNineteenth-Century European Paintings at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Ed. Sarah Lees. Williamstown, Mass., 2012, vol. 1, p. 229, under no. 100.
Lynne Ambrosini inDaubigny, Monet, Van Gogh: Impressions of Landscape. Exh. cat., Taft Museum of Art, Cincinnati. Edinburgh, 2016, pp. 35, 38, 157 n. 144, p. 171, fig. 28 (color), states that the painting depicts the Ru de Valmondois, a brook that probably was one of Daubigny's favorite childhood haunts that he painted several times from 1835 on; dates it 1876 or earlier; notes that it should probably be called "Spring" since the engraver Chauvel usually preserved painters' original titles.
There is an etching after this painting by Th. Chauvel (see Michel 1904). A similar painting of this site is owned by the Museum Mesdag, The Hague (H209).
Charles-François Daubigny (French, Paris 1817–1878 Paris)
1860
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