Landscape and River

Landscape and River displays brushwork that is remarkably loose and free, with a swirling texture that underscores the unsettled weather that lurks within the clouds. Painted in Villeneuve-Saint-Georges, near Paris, the scene is done in the limited range of earth tones preferred by the naturalist painters. Obviously painted with great rapidity, the marshy landscape in the foreground exhibits the ambiguous qualities that link Daubigny to the impressionists. The small figures pictured at the left blend softly in the background, reduced to insignificance amidst the sweeping uplift of the hills.