Portejoie on the Seine

Inscription: Signed and dated (lower left): Daubigny.18[5 or 6?]8

George I. Seney (until 1891; his sale, American Art Association, New York, February 11–13, no. 29, as "The River Front" for $4,700, to Davis); Theodore M. Davis, New York (1891–d. 1915; his estate, on loan to The Met, 1915–30)

Worcester Art Museum. "Winter Exhibition," Winter 1898–99, no. 42 (as "The River Front," lent by Theodore M. Davis, Newport, R.I.).

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Taste of the Seventies," April 2–September 10, 1946, no. 82 (as "The River Front").

Normal, IL. Illinois State University. March 18–April 5, 1957, no catalogue.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Barbizon: French Landscapes of the Nineteenth Century," February 4–May 10, 1992, no catalogue.

Josephine L. Allen and Elizabeth E. Gardner. A Concise Catalogue of the European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1954, p. 26.

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, pp. 97–98, ill., note that although the inscription has sometimes been read as 1858, the style of this picture indicates a date of 1868, adding that Daubigny's account book lists a picture of Portejoie ordered by the dealer Brame in 1868; state that Portejoie is a small village on the Seine near Louviers and mention a red chalk drawing of a similar composition in the Musée du Louvre, Paris; observe the influence of Constable.

Robert Hellebranth. Charles-François Daubigny, 1817–1878. Morges, Switzerland, 1976, p. 24, no. 53, ill., calls it "Bord de Seine, Triel" and reproduces two other versions with the same title, also dated 1868 (Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow, H52; present location unknown, H54).

Robert Hellebranth. Letter to Mary Ann Wurth Harris. August 1, 1978, identifies the village as Triel, citing the title "L'Oise à Triel" assigned to another version of the composition in the 1894 Garnier sale catalogue (present location unknown; H54); comments that Triel is situated on the Seine, not the Oise, in a département known in Daubigny's time as Seine et Oise, today Yvelines.

Katharine Baetjer. European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Artists Born Before 1865: A Summary Catalogue. New York, 1995, p. 422, ill.

There is a red chalk drawing of the same scene in the Musée du Louvre, Paris (inv. RF 3363, Recto). The drawing features notably fewer trees and lacks the prominent atmospheric effects found in the painting.