About the Artwork
In September 1871, Charles François Daubigny visited Holland, where he made oil sketches from a hired boat on the Meuse River near Dordrecht, resulting in a series of views, including this painting. To capture the expansive panorama of a riverbank punctuated by towering windmills and moored sailboats, Daubigny used his signature format of a double-square canvas. The low point of view from the boat allowed him to attend to glimmering reflections of the boats and buildings in the water, observed in the damp afternoon light on the brink of twilight.
Daubigny routinely painted outdoors. The artist’s propensity for looser brushwork and surfaces built from broad, thick layers of paint, as evidenced here in the folds of the creamy white sail, provoked the art establishment’s rebuke of his sketch-like technique and accusations that he painted mere “impressions.” This new approach to landscape painting earned Daubigny the admiration of a younger generation of artists, including Vincent van Gogh and Claude Monet.
Mills at Dordrecht
1872
Charles François Daubigny
1817-1878
French
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Oil on canvas
Unframed: 33 1/4 × 57 1/2 inches (84.5 × 146.1 cm) Framed: 45 5/8 × 69 5/8 × 5 1/4 inches (115.9 × 176.8 × 13.3 cm)
Paintings
European Modern Art to 1970
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. E. Raymond Field
32.85
Public Domain
Markings
Signed and dated, lower left: Daubigny 1872
Provenance
the artist;1871-1873, (Breysse);
1873, (Galerie Durand-Ruel, Paris, France) [as Bateaux et moulins en Hollande].
by 1905, Charles Tyson Yerkes [d. 1905] (Chicago, Illinois, USA, and New York, New York, USA);
April 5-8, 1910, Yerkes Estate Sale, lot 50 (American Art Association, New York, New York, USA) [as View of Villerville];
1910-1924, James Warren Lane;
November 20-22, 1924, James Warren Lane Sale, lot 366 (American Art Association, New York, New York, USA) [as View of Villerville by Karl-Pierre Daubigny].
by 1932, E. Raymond Field (Detroit, Michigan, USA);
1932-present, gift to the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)
For more information on provenance, please visit:
Provenance pageExhibition History
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The exhibition history of a number of objects in our collection only begins after their acquisition by the museum, and may reflect an incomplete record.
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Exh. cat., Salon of 1872. Paris, 1872, no. 437.
Laran, J. Daubigny (L'Art de Notre Temps). Paris, 1913, pp. 101-102 (fig. 63).
Heil, W. "A Landscape by Daubigny." Bulletin of the DIA 13, 6 (1932): pp. 71-73 (ill.).
"Recent Acquisitions." Parnassus 4 (1932): p. 40 (ill.).
Richardson, E.P., ed. Detroit Institute of Arts, Catalogue of Paintings. Detroit, pp. 35-36, no. 504.
Two Sides of the Medal: French Painting from Gérôme to Gauguin. Exh. cat., Detroit Institute of Arts. Detroit, 1954, no. 5.
Barbizon Revisited. Exh. cat., California Palace of the Legion of Honor. San Francisco, 1962, pp. 110, 119, no. 32 (ill.).
"The Voices of the Trees." Time (December 14, 1962): pp. 85-85 (ill.).
Paintings, Drawings, and Prints by Charles François Daubigny. Exh. cat., Paine Art Center. Oshkosh, Wisconsin, 1964, no. 69 (ill.).
DIA Handbook. Detroit, 1971, p. 155 (ill.).
Fidell-Beaufort, M. and J. Bailly-Herzberg. Daubigny. Paris, 1975, p. 179, no. 123 (ill.).
Hellebranth, R. Charles-François Daubigny: 1817-1878. Morges, 1976, no. 742 (ill.).
"Family Art Game." DIA Advertising Supplement. Detroit Free Press (May 20, 1979): p. 30 (ill.).
Sillevis, J and H. Kraan. The Barbizon School. The Hague, 1985, pp. 100-101 (fig. 63).
In Support of Liberty: European Paintings at the 1883 Pedestal Art Loan Exhibition. Exh. cat., The Parrish Art Museum. Southampton, New York, 1986, no. 24 (ill.).
Inspiring Impressionism: Daubigny, Monet, Van Gogh. Exh. cat., Taft Museum of Art. Cincinnati, 2015, pp. 60, 62, 82, 87, 89, 159, no. 51.
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Credit Line for Reproduction
Charles François Daubigny, Mills at Dordrecht, 1872, oil on canvas. Detroit Institute of Arts, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. E. Raymond Field, 32.85.
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