In 1844, Rousseau visited the Landes region of southwestern France, whose flat terrain may have inspired the countryside depicted here. The scenery recalls the open plains and broad skies he had long admired in seventeenth-century Dutch landscape painting. The boatman and the path leading back to the farm among the trees indicate that this is a rustic place, if not quite wild.
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Title:A River Landscape
Artist:Théodore Rousseau (French, Paris 1812–1867 Barbizon)
Date:ca. 1845–50
Medium:Oil on wood
Dimensions:16 3/8 x 24 7/8 in. (41.6 x 63.2 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:Bequest of Richard De Wolfe Brixey, 1943
Accession Number:43.86.7
A man stands in a skiff, apparently using an oar to push off from the bank of a river meandering through marshland. He is silhouetted against blue sky reflected in the surface of the water. In a delightful confluence of details, the boatman is rightside up, while the trees’ reflections in the water around him are upside down. A path through the grass in the foreground winds back toward a farmhouse and outbuildings glimpsed through dense trees: here is the source of the reflections in the river. This is a rustic place, if not quite wild. The specificity of individual features and their harmonious integration within the composition suggest that the painting represents a specific place. In 1844, Rousseau visited the Landes region of southwestern France, whose flat terrain may have inspired the countryside depicted here. However, as with many pictures by Rousseau, that cannot be determined definitively. The scenery also recalls the open plains and broad skies the artist had long admired in seventeenth-century Dutch landscape painting. A River Landscape has been dated variously, but no reason has emerged to question the consensus that it was executed between about 1845 and 1850.
Asher Miller 2022
Inscription: Signed (lower left): Th.Rousseau.
H. Tondury, Geneva (until 1922; sold on August 10 for Fr 10,000 to Knoedler); [Knoedler, New York, 1922–23; stock no. 15438, as "Menace d'orage"; sold on April 27 for $17,142.85 to Brixey]; Richard De Wolfe Brixey, New York (1923–d. 1943)
New York. American Federation of Arts. "A Landscape View of 19th Century France (circulating exhibition)," September 1, 1954–1957, no catalogue?
Palm Beach. Society of the Four Arts. "Paintings of the Barbizon School," January 6–29, 1962, no. 43 (as "Landscape").
Haus der Kunst München. "Corot, Courbet und die Maler von Barbizon: 'Les amis de la nature'," February 4–April 21, 1996, no. B 134.
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.
Josephine L. Allen and Elizabeth E. Gardner. A Concise Catalogue of the European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1954, p. 87.
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. 81, ill., tentatively date it between 1848 and 1850.
Katharine Baetjer. European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Artists Born Before 1865: A Summary Catalogue. New York, 1995, p. 417, ill.
Claudia Denk inCorot, Courbet und die Maler von Barbizon: "Les amis de la nature". Ed. Christoph Heilmann, Michael Clarke, and John Sillevis. Exh. cat., Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen and Haus der Kunst München. Munich, 1996, pp. 318–19, no. B 134, ill.. (color), dates it about 1850.
Michel Schulman with Marie Bataillès. Théodore Rousseau, 1812–1867: Catalogue raisonné de l'œuvre peint. Paris, 1999, p. 243, no. 424, ill., dates it about 1850.
Asher Ethan Miller. "The Path of Nature: French Paintings from the Wheelock Whitney Collection, 1785–1850." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 70 (Winter 2013), pp. 13, 37, fig. 10 (color), dates it about 1845–50.
Théodore Rousseau (French, Paris 1812–1867 Barbizon)
ca. 1831
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