Charles-François Daubigny ( , , ; 15 February 181719 February 1878) was a French painter, one of the members of the Barbizon school, and is considered an important precursor of

impressionism Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by visible brush strokes, open Composition (visual arts), composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage ...

. He was also a prolific

printmaker Printmaking is the process of creating artworks by printing, normally on paper, but also on fabric, wood, metal, and other surfaces. "Traditional printmaking" normally covers only the process of creating prints using a hand processed technique ...

, mostly in

etching Etching is traditionally the process of using strong acid or mordant to cut into the unprotected parts of a metal surface to create a design in intaglio (incised) in the metal. In modern manufacturing, other chemicals may be used on other type ...

, and one of the main artists who used the cliché verre technique.

Biography

Daubigny was born in Paris, into a family of painters; taught art by his father, , and his uncle, miniaturist Pierre Daubigny (1793-1858). He was also a pupil of Jean-Victor Bertin, Jacques Raymond Brascassat and

Paul Delaroche Hippolyte-Paul Delaroche (; Paris, 17 July 1797 – Paris, 4 November 1856) was a French painter who achieved his greater successes painting historical scenes. He became famous in Europe for his melodramatic depictions that often portrayed subje ...

, from whom he would quickly emancipate himself. Though best known for his painted landscapes, Daubigny survived for many years as a graphic artist, illustrating books, magazines and travel guides for publication. In 1838, he set up, at the Rue des Amandiers-Popincourt, a community of artists, a phalanstery, with Adolphe-Victor Geoffroy-Dechaume, Hippolyte Lavoignat,

Ernest Meissonnier Jean-Louis-Ernest Meissonier (; 21 February 181531 January 1891) was a French academic painter and sculptor. He became famous for his depictions of Napoleon and his military sieges and manoeuvres in paintings acclaimed both for the artist's mas ...

, Auguste Steinheil, Louis Joseph Trimolet, with whom he already had expressed his interest in subjects drawn directly from daily life and nature. These artists will work, among others, for the publisher Léon Curmer, who was specialized in books illustrated with vignettes. From this period date the first confirmed engravings by Daubigny. Initially Daubigny painted in a more traditional style, but this changed after 1843 when he settled in

Barbizon Barbizon () is a commune (town) in the Seine-et-Marne department in north-central France. It is located near the Fontainebleau Forest. Demographics The inhabitants are called ''Barbizonais''. Art history The Barbizon school of painters is n ...

to work outside in nature. Even more important was his meeting with

Camille Corot Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot ( , , ; 16 July 1796 – 22 February 1875), or simply Camille Corot, was a French landscape and portrait painter as well as a printmaker in etching. A pivotal figure in landscape painting, his vast output si ...

in 1852 in Optevoz (Isère). On his famous boat ''Botin'', which he had turned into a studio, he painted along the

Seine The Seine ( , ) is a river in northern France. Its drainage basin is in the Paris Basin (a geological relative lowland) covering most of northern France. It rises at Source-Seine, northwest of Dijon in northeastern France in the Langres plat ...

and

Oise Oise ( ; ; ) is a department in the north of France. It is named after the river Oise. Inhabitants of the department are called ''Oisiens'' () or ''Isariens'', after the Latin name for the river, Isara. It had a population of 829,419 in 2019.< ...

, often in the region around Auvers. From 1852 onward, he was influenced by

Gustave Courbet Jean Désiré Gustave Courbet ( ; ; ; 10 June 1819 – 31 December 1877) was a French painter who led the Realism movement in 19th-century French painting. Committed to painting only what he could see, he rejected academic convention and the ...

. The two artists were from the same generation and were driven by the realist movement: during a joint stay, each composed a series of views of Optevoz. In 1848, Daubigny worked on behalf of the Chalcographie du Louvre, performing facsimiles, which testifies to his great expertise in this art, and revisiting the technique of aquatint in a less cumbersome process. His famous series of ''Rolling Carts'' dates from this period. In 1862, with Corot, he experimented with the cliché-verre technique, halfway between photography and printmaking. In 1866, he joined the jury of the Paris Salon for the first time, alongside his friend Corot. The same year, Daubigny visited England, eventually returning because of the

Franco-Prussian war The Franco-Prussian War or Franco-German War, often referred to in France as the War of 1870, was a conflict between the Second French Empire and the North German Confederation led by the Kingdom of Prussia. Lasting from 19 July 1870 to 28 Janua ...

, in 1870. In

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

he met

Claude Monet Oscar-Claude Monet (, ; ; 14 November 1840 – 5 December 1926) was a French painter and founder of Impressionism painting who is seen as a key precursor to modernism, especially in his attempts to paint nature as he perceived it. During his ...

, and they left for the Netherlands together. Back in Auvers, he met

Paul Cézanne Paul Cézanne ( , , ; ; ; 19 January 1839 – 22 October 1906) was a French Post-Impressionism, Post-Impressionist painter whose work introduced new modes of representation, influenced avant-garde artistic movements of the early 20th century a ...

, another important Impressionist. It is assumed that these younger

impressionist Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by visible brush strokes, open Composition (visual arts), composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage ...

painters were influenced by Daubigny. Daubigny died in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

in 1878. His remains are interred at cimetière du Père-Lachaise (division 24). His followers and pupils included his son (whose works are occasionally mistaken for those of his father), , Hippolyte Camille Delpy, Albert Charpin and Pierre Emmanuel Damoye. The two painters who introduced the Barbizon School in

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...

, in 1879, António da Silva Porto and

João Marques de Oliveira João Joaquim Marques da Silva Oliveira (23 August 1853 – 9 October 1927) was a Portuguese painter in the Naturalism (visual art), Naturalist style. Biography Oliveira was born in Porto. In 1864, when he was only eleven, he entered the . Five ...

, were also his disciples.

Paintings

The most striking paintings by Daubigny were those produced between 1864 and 1874, which depict mostly forest landscapes and lakes. Disappointed because he felt that he did not meet with the same level of success and admiration as his contemporaries, by the end of his career he was nonetheless an extremely sought-after and appreciated artist. The motifs of his paintings, sometimes tending towards repetitiveness and often playing on the horizontality of the landscape underlined by a backlight effect, would be taken up and accentuated by Hippolyte Camille Delpy, his most influenced student. His most ambitious canvases include ''Springtime'' (1857), in the Louvre; ''Borde de la Cure'', Morvan (1864); ''Villerville sur Mer'' (1864); ''Moonlight'' (1865); ''Auvers-sur-Oise'' (1868); and ''Return of the Flock'' (1878). He was named by the French government as an Officer of the

Legion of Honor The National Order of the Legion of Honour ( ), formerly the Imperial Order of the Legion of Honour (), is the highest and most prestigious French national order of merit, both military and civil. Currently consisting of five classes, it was ...

In popular culture

The life of Daubigny was adapted into a

graphic novel A graphic novel is a self-contained, book-length form of sequential art. The term ''graphic novel'' is often applied broadly, including fiction, non-fiction, and Anthology, anthologized work, though this practice is highly contested by comics sc ...

by Belgian comics writer Bruno de Roover and artist

Luc Cromheecke Luc Cromheecke (born 2 August 1961), is a Belgian comics artist best known for the comic series ''Tom Carbon'', ''Taco Zip'', ''Roboboy'' and ''Plunk''. Biography Luc Cromheecke was born in Antwerp in 1961.De Weyer, Geert (2005). "Luc Cromheecke ...

. It appeared under the title ''De Tuin van Daubigny'' in 2016,, and in an

ebook An ebook (short for electronic book), also spelled as e-book or eBook, is a book publication made available in electronic form, consisting of text, images, or both, readable on the flat-panel display of computers or other electronic devices. A ...

English translation by James Vandermeersch, as ''Daubigny's Garden'', in 2017.

Public collections

Among the public collections holding works by Charles-François Daubigny are:

Gallery

File:Pièce d'eau sous-bois (Daubigny).jpg, '' Pool Beneath Trees'' (1850)
Museum of modern art André Malraux - MuMa,

Le Havre Le Havre is a major port city in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy (administrative region), Normandy region of northern France. It is situated on the right bank of the estuary of the Seine, river Seine on the English Channel, Channe ...

File:Charles-François Daubigny - Harvest - Google Art Project.jpg, '' The Harvest'' (1851)

Musée d'Orsay The Musée d'Orsay ( , , ) () is a museum in Paris, France, on the Rive Gauche, Left Bank of the Seine. It is housed in the former Gare d'Orsay, a Beaux-Arts architecture, Beaux-Arts railway station built from 1898 to 1900. The museum holds mai ...

File:Charles-Franҫois Daubigny - The Ponds of Gylieu - Google Art Project.jpg, ''The Ponds of Gylieu '' (1853)

Cincinnati Art Museum The Cincinnati Art Museum is an art museum in the Eden Park neighborhood of Cincinnati, Ohio. Founded in 1881, it was the first purpose-built art museum west of the Alleghenies, and is one of the oldest in the United States. Its collection of ...

File:Brooklyn Museum - The River Seine at Mantes - Charles-François Daubigny.jpg, ''The River Seine at Mantes'' (1856)

Brooklyn Museum The Brooklyn Museum is an art museum in the New York City borough (New York City), borough of Brooklyn. At , the museum is New York City's second largest and contains an art collection with around 500,000 objects. Located near the Prospect Heig ...

File:Charles François Daubigny - Banks of the Oise.jpg, ''Banks of the Oise'' (1863)

Saint Louis Art Museum The Saint Louis Art Museum (SLAM) is an art museum located in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. With paintings, sculptures, cultural objects, and ancient masterpieces from around the world, its three-story building stands in Forest Park in ...

File:The Creek (1863).jpg, ''The Creek'' (1863), oil on panel, 11 13/16 x 19 in. (30 x 48.3 cm),

Clark Art Institute The Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, commonly referred to as the Clark, is an art museum and research institution located in Williamstown, Massachusetts, Williamstown, Massachusetts, United States. Its collection consists of European ...

File:Charles François Daubigny - Twilight - Walters 37128.jpg, ''Twilight'' (1866)

Walters Art Museum The Walters Art Museum is a public art museum located in the Mount Vernon, Baltimore, Mount Vernon neighborhood of Baltimore, Maryland. Founded and opened in 1934, it holds collections from the mid-19th century that were amassed substantially ...

Baltimore Baltimore is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the 30th-most populous U.S. city. The Baltimore metropolitan area is the 20th-large ...

File:The Bridge between Persan and Beaumont-sur-Oise.jpg, ''The Bridge between Persan and Beaumont-sur-Oise'' (1867), oil on panel, 15 1/8 x 26 7/16 in. (38.4 x 67.1 cm),

File:Charles-François Daubigny 005.jpg, ''La Confluence de la Seine et de l'Oise'' (1868)
Museum of Fine Arts,

Budapest Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...

File:Charles-François Daubigny - Les blanchisseuses (1870s).jpg, ''Les Blanchisseuses'' (1870-1874)
The Frick Collection,

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

File:Charles-François Daubigny - Les Sables-d'Olonne - Google Art Project.jpg, ''

Les Sables-d'Olonne Les Sables-d'Olonne (; French meaning: "The Sands of Olonne"; Poitevin: ''Lés Sablles d'Oloune'') is a seaside resort and port on the Atlantic coast of western France. A subprefecture of the department of Vendée, Pays de la Loi ...

'', seaside town
in western France File:Charles-François Daubigny - Bateaux sur la côte à Étaples (1871).jpg, ''Boats on the Seacoast at

Étaples Étaples or Étaples-sur-Mer (; or ; formerly ; ) is a communes of France, commune in the departments of France, department of Pas-de-Calais, Hauts-de-France, northern France. It is a fishing and leisure port on the Canche river. History Étapl ...

'' (1871)

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an Encyclopedic museum, encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the List of largest museums, third-largest museum in the world and the List of larg ...

File:Les Laveuses - Charles Francois Daubigny - ABDAG003149.jpg, ''Les Laveuses'' (1873)

Aberdeen Art Gallery Aberdeen Art Gallery is the main visual arts exhibition space in the city of Aberdeen, Scotland. It was founded in 1884 in a building designed by Alexander Marshall Mackenzie, with a sculpture court added in 1905. In 1900, it received the art ...

File:Woodland Scene.jpg, ''Woodland Scene'' (1873), oil on panel, 9 1/16 x 7 in. (23 x 17.8 cm),

File:Lever de lune à Auvers ou le retour du troupeau.jpg, ''Lever de lune à Auvers'', or ''Le Retour du troupeau'' (1878)
Montreal Museum of Fine Arts File:Charles-François Daubigny - Farm at Kerity, Brittany - Google Art Project.jpg, ''Farm at Kerity'', Brittany

Kunstmuseum Den Haag The Kunstmuseum Den Haag is an art museum in The Hague in the Netherlands, founded in 1866 as the Museum voor Moderne Kunst. Later, until 1998, it was known as Haags Gemeentemuseum, and until the end of September 2019 as Gemeentemuseum Den Haag. I ...

The Hague The Hague ( ) is the capital city of the South Holland province of the Netherlands. With a population of over half a million, it is the third-largest city in the Netherlands. Situated on the west coast facing the North Sea, The Hague is the c ...

Notes

References

External links

*
Charles-François Daubigny – Museum – Musée Daubigny Auvers-sur-Oise

Charles-François Daubigny's Home-Studio
– Maison-Atelier de Daubigny Auvers-sur-Oise. Historical monument.

– Rehs Galleries' biography on the artist.

{{DEFAULTSORT:Daubigny, Charles-Francois 1817 births 1878 deaths Painters from Paris 19th-century French painters French male painters French Realist painters French landscape painters Officers of the Legion of Honour Burials at Père Lachaise Cemetery 19th-century French male artists