Artwork
The Seine: Morning
The Seine: Morning is an oil painting by the Impressionist artist Charles François Daubigny. It dates from 1874 and is held in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
About this work
Subject & Meaning
The work portrays the Seine River at dawn, with a modest village and a church building emerging along its banks, set within a broad, sun-lit landscape.
The work portrays the Seine River at dawn, with a modest village and a church building emerging along its banks, set within a broad, sun-lit landscape. The composition emphasizes the gentle morning light that bathes the water and structures, underscoring the fleeting atmospheric effects that occupied Daubigny's practice. By foregrounding recognizable French riverine motifs, water, settlement, and ecclesiastical architecture, the painting conveys a sense of pastoral tranquility and national identity tied to the river's cultural significance.
The depiction aligns with 19th-century landscape conventions that celebrated natural scenery as both visual study and symbolic expression of place.
Technique & Style
Created in 1874, The Seine: Morning is executed in oil paint applied to a panel support. The work measures 38.7 centimeters in height and 69.2 centimeters in width. As a landscape painting, the artist employs the medium to depict a morning scene along the Seine, featuring a river, a village, and a church building.
The handling of the oil on panel allows for the rendering of these specific landscape elements within the genre. The painting is currently held in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where it is classified as a landscape.
History & Provenance
The Seine: Morning is an 1874 oil-on-panel landscape by French painter Charles-François Daubigny. The work, measuring roughly 38.7 × 69.2 cm, depicts the Seine river at dawn with a village, church and surrounding terrain. It belongs to the genre of landscape painting and was created in the same year recorded for the artist's output.
The painting entered the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where it remains on view (no specific acquisition date is documented). Its provenance therefore traces from the artist's studio in 1874 to its current ownership by the Met.
Overview
This oil painting, titled The Seine: Morning, captures a serene dawn scene along a riverbank. The composition features a tranquil waterway reflecting the soft, early light, with a few ducks present near the shore. Tall trees on the left stand silhouetted against the pale sky, beneath which cows graze.
In the background, a small structure, possibly a church or house, rests on a distant hill, surrounded by fields.
Artist & collection
Artist
Charles-François Daubigny ( DOH-bin-yee, US: DOH-been-YEE, doh-BEEN-yee, French:; 15 February 1817 – 19 February 1878) was a French painter, one of the members of the Barbizon school, and is considered an important precursor of…
