Portejoie on the Seine

Here we have a quiet riverside scene painted by Charles-François Daubigny, a French artist who loved nothing more than capturing the calm beauty of the countryside. This view shows Portejoie, a small village along the Seine, where simple white houses sit on a grassy bank beneath a wide, cloudy sky. A figure rests near a wooden boat at the water's edge, and the whole scene feels still and peaceful. Daubigny was a master of these moody skies, and you can almost feel the heavy air just before the weather turns.

Daubigny was part of the Barbizon School, a group of painters who chose to work outdoors and paint nature exactly as they saw it. He was so devoted to the rivers of France that he actually built a studio boat called the Botin, which let him float along the Seine and the Oise painting directly from the water. His loose, soft brushwork and honest love of ordinary landscapes had a big influence on the Impressionists who came after him, including Claude Monet. Look closely at the gentle reflections in the river, and you can see why younger artists admired his quiet, unfussy approach to capturing a moment in time.