Nº 57
Reading edition
Charles François Daubigny FRENCH: 1817-1878
A SHOWERY DAY IN SPRING
Height, 15 inches; length, 26½ inches
A quiet river sweeps around in a gentle curve from the foreground to the right, and along the shore, at the foot of grassy slopes which bound the river, are rows of stakes and poles, suggesting their use as fishing traps. On the left, rising above a thickly growing mass of reeds and rushes, stands a sturdy oak tree, its rounded top rising against a luminous sky filled with thin drifting clouds, catching here and there the diffused light from the sun. Farther away the horizon is formed by the irregular outline of a range of low hills, broken here and there by clumps of trees and farm buildings. The tones of the sky are repeated in the quiet surface of the water, which is broken only by the reflected light on the ripples of the current.
Signed at the lower left, Daubigny, ’76.