At the Salon of 1864, Monet saw Daubigny’s "Cliffs at Villerville" and must have appreciated the way it captured the ever-changing light and weather at the seashore. Soon Monet created his own large picture of another stretch of beach and cliffs in Normandy, and exhibited it at the following year’s Salon, as if in dialogue with Daubigny.

Daubigny, Monet, Van Gogh

9. Claude Monet, "The Point of la Hève at Low Tide," 1865

The exhibition "Daubigny, Monet, Van Gogh: Impressions of Landscape" introduces Charles François Daubigny, a relatively forgotten artist from the 1800s. It explores his landscape painting and his influence on the younger generation of artists known as the French Impressionists.

1. Introduction

Born in Paris in 1817, Daubigny studied Dutch landscapes in the Louvre Museum and trained with painters at the French Academy. He painted this early forest view delicately and precisely, using small brushes.

2. Daubigny, "The Crossroads of the Eagle’s Nest," 1844

In about 1851, Daubigny painted this view of peasants harvesting grain in the fields just northeast of Paris. He wanted to capture the diffuse sunlight shimmering through the hazy atmosphere on a hot summer day in central France.

3. Daubigny, "The Harvest," 1851

On a diagonal path alongside an orchard of flowering apple trees, a young woman rides a donkey. Behind her walk two young lovers, their heads barely visible above the fields of new grain. The scene evokes spring, with its fragrance, bursting growth, and romance. Surprisingly, this was not a common subject for painters at the time.

4. Daubigny, "Spring," 1857

Daubigny traveled extensively to paint France’s many landscapes. Here, he captures the appearance of a still pond in the hills above the Rhône Valley.

5. Daubigny, "At the Water’s Edge, Optevoz," about 1856

In 1857, Daubigny bought an old ferryboat and equipped it with a cabin so that he could paint the French riverbanks from the water.

6. Daubigny, "Ferryboat near Bonnières-sur-Seine," 1861

After his first venture on his studio boat, Daubigny embarked on more painting trips—often for weeks at a time—in spring, summer, and fall. The pictures created on his boat trips have a watery foreground that features reflections of the sky, clouds, and trees. No one had ever painted landscapes like this; he had invented another new compositional type that everyone recognized then as highly original.

7. Daubigny, "The Banks of the Oise River," 1863

Daubigny first encountered the ocean when visiting the Normandy coast in 1854. He wrote, “I see the ocean, and it is so beautiful that I don’t want to go anywhere else, and I can’t wait to work!”

8. Daubigny, "The Cliffs of Villerville-sur-Mer," 1864 and 1872

Monet visited the Netherlands and painted this landscape near the village of Zaandam, very likely from a boat, in the manner of Daubigny. Like the older artist, Monet concentrated on the colorful reflections in the water and on capturing nuances of light and atmosphere.

10. Claude Monet, "Houses on the Achterzaan," 1871

Daubigny loved to paint the color transformations produced by sunsets over the sea at Villerville, his favorite spot on the coast. Whereas many earlier landscapists had depicted the natural world in a state of timeless perfection, Daubigny was fascinated by the transitory conditions of nature.

11. Daubigny, "The Beach at Villerville at Sunset," 1873

Every spring, Daubigny joyfully painted flowering trees. In late works such as this one, he brought his sketch style—with its broad, free strokes—into his large exhibition pictures. This was quite a change from his early, more precise way of painting.

12. Daubigny, "Orchard in Blossom," 1874

When Daubigny painted outdoors, he translated his feeling for nature into an outpouring of spontaneous brushwork. In fact, his commitment to open air painting greatly exceeded that of any other artist before the Impressionists. In this picture, using his favorite extra-wide canvas shape, he depicted the very same wheat fields that Vincent Van Gogh would portray in his famous last paintings, just 15 years later.

13. Daubigny, "Landscape with Harvesters," 1875

This was the last canvas on Daubigny’s easel before his death in February of 1878. Here, he portrays the fields of Auvers in the early evening, as a shepherd and his flock head back to the village.

14. Daubigny, "Moonrise at Auvers," 1877

After the Franco-Prussian War, Pissarro painted this blooming orchard, a subject then strongly associated with Daubigny. In Pissarro’s orchard picture, the laboring peasants and freshly turned soil anchor the image more firmly in the here and now. However, just like Daubigny, Pissarro worked outdoors, delicately brushing the pale colors of blossoms onto his canvas and celebrating spring and renewal.

15. Camille Pissarro, "Orchard in Bloom, Louveciennes," 1872

"Daubigny, Monet, Van Gogh: Impressions of Landscape" is a special exhibition organized by the Taft Museum of Art in partnership with the Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh, Scotland, and the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, and will travel to these two European museums after premiering at the Taft. This audio tour has been made possible through the generosity of the docents of the Taft Museum of Art.