TRÉSOR DE PEINTURE # 19 (ENG)

Sunset near Villerville, by Charles-François Daubigny
The Mesdag Collection
The Hague, Netherlands
www.demesdagcollectie.nl

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Charles-François Daubigny, Sunset near Villerville, c. 1876
Oil on canvas, 89 x 130 cm.
The Mesdag Collection, The Hague, Inv. hwm0089
© The Mesdag Collection, The Hague

Text : the museum team.

Daubigny paid regular visits to the coastal village of Villerville-sur-Mer in Normandy. There he painted various seascapes, including this sunset. Daubigny applied the paint with quick, broad brushstrokes and a palette knife. That makes the painting look as though it was completed in one sitting. In reality, he made changes to it several times.
Daubigny’s use of bright colours, such as intense yellows, oranges and pinks, probably reflects the influence of the French Impressionists. At their first exhibition in 1874, those young painters had caused a commotion with their colourful, swiftly painted impressions of natural scenes.
Daubigny’s setting sun is most reminiscent of Claude Monet’s Impression, Soleil levant, the painting that gave Impressionism its name. Monet and Daubigny were friends, and both benefited from their artistic interaction.
This painting was purchased by the couple Hendrik Willem Mesdag and Sientje Mesdag-van Houten. They were artists themselves and built up an important collection of 19th-century art by other artists, including the largest collection of art by Barbizon painters outside of France.