In 1862, having been awarded a prize by Madrid’s Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Rico traveled to Paris to develop his talent for landscape painting, eventually choosing to study with Charles-François Daubigny. This view, which he painted along the river Seine at Poissy in 1869, adopts one of Daubigny’s most characteristic picture types: an emphatically horizontal river view. Yet Rico’s smooth brushwork and precise realism reflect an awareness of contemporary photography that is entirely his own. In his autobiography, Rico wrote that "the delicate colors of the banks of the Seine and the Marne are not easily found elsewhere."
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Title:On the Seine
Artist:Martín Rico y Ortega (Spanish, Madrid 1833–1908 Venice)
Date:1869
Medium:Oil on canvas
Dimensions:15 1/4 x 25 1/2 in. (38.7 x 64.8 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:Bequest of Maria DeWitt Jesup, from the collection of her husband, Morris K. Jesup, 1914
Accession Number:15.30.71
Inscription: Signed (lower right): RICO
Possibly Ramón de Errazu, Paris (bought from the artist as "Pescadores de Poissy" for Fr 600 in 1869); Morris K. Jesup, New York (until d. 1908); his wife, Maria DeWitt Jesup, New York (1908–d. 1914)
Phoenix Art Museum. "The Metropolitan Museum of Art Loan Collection: 'The River and the Sea'," February 15, 1967–February 15, 1968, no. 16.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Van Gogh as Critic and Self-Critic," October 30, 1973–January 6, 1974, no. 20.
Madrid. Museo Nacional del Prado. "El paisajista Martín Rico (1833–1908)," October 30, 2012–February 10, 2013, no. 16.
Dallas. Meadows Museum, Southern Methodist University. "Impressions of Europe: Nineteenth-Century Vistas by Martín Rico," March 10–July 7, 2013, no. 16.
A[lfred]. G[eorge]. Temple. Modern Spanish Painting; being a review of some of the chief painters and paintings of the Spanish school since the time of Goya. London, 1908, p. 47.
Harry B. Wehle. The Metropolitan Museum of Art: A Catalogue of Italian, Spanish, and Byzantine Paintings. New York, 1940, p. 301.
Josephine L. Allen and Elizabeth E. Gardner. A Concise Catalogue of the European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1954, p. 84.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Loan Collection: 'The River and the Sea'. Exh. cat., Phoenix Art Museum. Phoenix, 1967, unpaginated, no. 16, ill.
Mme Claude Rico-Robert. Letter to Mrs. Rizzo. January 31, 1977, states that it is representative of Rico y Ortega's early work.
Katharine Baetjer. European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Artists Born Before 1865: A Summary Catalogue. New York, 1995, p. 167, ill.
Javier Barón inImpressions of Europe: Nineteenth-Century Vistas by Martín Rico. Ed. Javier Barón. Exh. cat., Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid. Dallas, 2013, p. 71, fig. 49 (color detail) [Spanish ed., "El paisajista Martín Rico [1833–1908]," Madrid, 2012, p. 69, fig. 49 (color detail)], calls it the finest of Rico's most characteristic works from Poissy and from the moment when he reached his mature style; notes that while the subject matter is similar to that of Jules Dupré and Charles-François Daubigny, the luminous composition made up of nearly parallel bands was unique.
Javier Barón et al. inImpressions of Europe: Nineteenth-Century Vistas by Martín Rico. Ed. Javier Barón. Exh. cat., Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid. Dallas, 2013, pp. 154–55, no. 16, ill. (color) [Spanish ed., "El paisajista Martín Rico [1833–1908]," Madrid, 2012, pp. 150–52, no. 16, ill. (color)], date it 1869, noting most of Rico's work between 1868 and the summer of 1870 depicted rivers near Paris and that he painted in Poissy in 1869; suggest "Pescadores de Poissy" in his sales notebook is The Met's picture.
Impressions of Europe: Nineteenth-Century Vistas by Martín Rico. Ed. Javier Barón. Exh. cat., Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid. Dallas, 2013, p. 284 [Spanish ed., "El paisajista Martín Rico [1833–1908]," Madrid, 2012, p. 270], as "Pescadores de Poissy" (Fishermen of Poissy), sold to Errazu for 600 francs in 1869.
Goya (Francisco de Goya y Lucientes) (Spanish, Fuendetodos 1746–1828 Bordeaux)
1820
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