“Cows Drinking at the River”
I love the contrasts in this landscape. And the serene setting. And highlighting an artist that supported so many great artists when they were just starting out.
“Cows Drinking at the River” is an oil on panel painting by the French artist, Charles-François Daubigny, from 1865. Daubigny is most known for his association with the Barbizon school of art, a style tending toward realism, though he is more stylistically aligned with the naturalism of Camille Corot. The Barbizon school started as a response to the Romanticism style that had been prevalent for decades.
The setting of this painting appears to be late in the day, when the sun has nearly set. Along the banks of the Seine River, animals are drinking water. In the foreground, a group of cows are standing at the edge of the water, in the process of drinking. In the middle ground, horses are drinking from the river, one which has a man sitting upon it. The setting sun gives an orange warm glow to the scene, which contrasts beautifully with the shadowed silhouettes of the trees.
In July 1886, Daubigny sold this painting to Charles Leroux, another artist of the Barbizon school, who was a patron of the arts in addition to being an artist himself. It was then known as “Bank of the Seine”.
Though he trained and began his career as a more Academic and history artist, in the 1850s, Daubigny’s art started to change. He developed friendships with Camille Corot and Gustave Courbet. Their mutual interest in the natural world aligned their work as they influenced each other’s styles. Daubigny was becoming interested in the play of light on the landscape, adding a depth to his work previously unseen. His work showed a spontaneity of a scene, rather than the grand scale pieces he was trained to paint. After spending several years working on a studio boat traversing the Seine, Marne, and Oise Rivers, in 1860, Daubigny bought land in Auvers-sur-Oise, just northwest of Paris where he built a studio in the countryside. His studio became a meeting place for artists looking to get out of the city for some natural inspiration.
Many art historians believe that Daubigny was a major influence on the beginnings of the Impressionism art movement. He explored new techniques with his art and helped pave the way to modern, non-traditional approaches to landscapes. Daubigny was a mentor of many artists including Claude Monet and Alfred Sisley, the former who purchased his own studio boat many years after Daubigny. He was an avid supporter of the Impressionism movement from the very beginning. This was meaningful at the time, as most art traditionalists were avidly against Impressionism and anything other than the status quo.
“Cows Drinking at the River” sold at a Christie’s auction in 2018 and is currently in a private collection.
For more on Charles-François Daubigny, please visit his short biography here.
You can find more artists to learn about here.
