Tree

More than a document, this is a portrait of a tree, centered within the frame, with its presence dominating the landscape. The branches cut off at the top of the frame seem to magically reappear as the tree that peeks up from a lower bank of the river, a smooth expanse of white in the middle ground. The arched outline of a bridge is barely detectable in the far distance as Louis Désiré Blanquart-Evrard celebrated the beauty of the simple, natural subject. The rough wooden legs of an unidentifiable structure intruding into the picture lend a touch of spontaneity to the scene.