Snow scene, Valmondois
Charles DAUBIGNY: artist
The acceptance of landscape as a fit subject for painting developed in France in the mid-nineteenth century. This was in part due to the rapid growth in the size of cities that had occurred, bringing about a clear separation between the city and the countryside. Daubigny was a member of the first generation of French landscape painters who chose to paint en plein-air, that is, to work outside directly
in front of the subject in order to produce a spontaneous rendering of the fleeting sensations of light and atmospheric effects. (August 2018)
Daubigny was not robust as a child, so he was sent away from his family in Paris to be raised in rural Valmondois by his nurse. He developed a strong affinity for that countryside and repeatedly returned to paint its familiar contours throughout his adult life.
Many artists painted scenes of snow-covered landscapes in the 1870s, including Courbet, Monet and Cézanne. These paintings were not popular with the critics, and Daubigny was roundly criticised for his subject of starving crows circling over the figure of a peasant wending his way home, the bleakness of the predominantly white and black colour palette, and the application of the paint in thick, visible brushstrokes.
in front of the subject in order to produce a spontaneous rendering of the fleeting sensations of light and atmospheric effects. (August 2018)
Daubigny was not robust as a child, so he was sent away from his family in Paris to be raised in rural Valmondois by his nurse. He developed a strong affinity for that countryside and repeatedly returned to paint its familiar contours throughout his adult life.
Many artists painted scenes of snow-covered landscapes in the 1870s, including Courbet, Monet and Cézanne. These paintings were not popular with the critics, and Daubigny was roundly criticised for his subject of starving crows circling over the figure of a peasant wending his way home, the bleakness of the predominantly white and black colour palette, and the application of the paint in thick, visible brushstrokes.
Title
Snow scene, Valmondois
Artist/Maker and role
Charles DAUBIGNY: artist
Date
1875
Medium
oil on canvas
Measurements
88.7 x 153.3 cm
117.0 x 182.0 cm (framed)
117.0 x 182.0 cm (framed)
Credit line
Purchased 1904
The State Art Collection, The Art Gallery of Western Australia
Accession number
1904/00P2