Sailing Boats at Dordrecht

Charles-François Daubigny

(1817- Paris – 1878)

Sailing Boats at Dordrecht, 1871

Oil on panel, 37,3 x 68 cm 
inscribed with pen and brown ink on its reverse:  Je reconnais cette étude / comme étant de mon père / Karl Daubigny

Provenance:
– A. Stein (consigner at Sotheby’s in 1965)
– Sotheby’s London, 1 December 1965, lot 266;
– with Galerie Claude Aubry, Paris;
– private collection, France, acquired from the above in the 1960’s;
– private collection, France, by descent; 
– Tableaux et Dessins Sculptures 1300-1900, Sotheby’s, Paris, 3 December 2020, lot 133.

During the nineteenth century French landscape painting underwent a remarkable transformation from a minor genre rooted in classical traditions to a primary vehicle for artistic experimentation. Some of the most important trends in the development of modernist art, such as the elevation of contemporary subjects, the rejection of idealisation, and the emphasis on the act of painting, first emerged in the landscapes of this era.

Charles-François Daubigny played a key role in this process. He favored naturalistic observations of his native country above academic, idealized Italianate scenes. Daubigny often worked directly from nature (en plein air), resulting in fading the traditional separation between oil sketches, studies and his finished works of art. Conservative critics complained that Daubigny’s paintings lacked attention to detail and disliked his sketch-like handling of paint. 

Sailing Boats at Dordrecht is a great example of his work at the height of his career. He painted on a boat it in situ. An unorthodox and successful working method that he discovered in 1857 when he constructed a floating studio on a small boat (fig. 1), which he sailed along the Seine and Oise rivers, in order to capture unrivaled views of their banks. Sailing Boats at Dordrecht is related to Mills at Dordrecht, a large studio painting that Daubigny exhibited at the Salon in 1872 (fig. 2).

Daubigny is often described as a Pre-Impressionist because the younger generation of landscape painters admired his work. He also helped the Impressionists get their work accepted among the establishment in the 1860’s. In 1870, during the Franco-Prussian War, Daubigny and Monet both worked in London. There, Daubigny introduced Monet to the influential art dealer Paul Durand- Ruel. This turned out to be a crucial moment in Monet’s career.2 A few months later both painters worked in the Netherlands.

In 1871 both Daubigny and Monet painted Dutch river landscapes. The similarity of their motives, their friendship and their artistic exchange in this period made everyone assume that they also worked together in the Netherlands. The brushwork Daubigny applied in Sailing Boats at Dordrecht, ideal to swiftly capture his impression of the city’s surroundings, is comparable to Monet’s rapid painting technique at the time (fig. 4). Frouke van Dijke revealed that the two painters did not work together and probably not even met in the Netherlands. According to her research, Monet spent most of his time painting Dutch motives while Daubigny used his visit mainly to study old master paintings.3 Baring that in mind, one wonders if Daubigny’s use of colour and composition for Sailing Boats at Dordrecht are inspired by the work of Albert Cuyp, the famous Dutch Golden Age landscape painter from Dordrecht (fig.3).

Dordrecht, the oldest city in Holland, is situated on an island bordered by several rivers. It was a popular destination for tourists during the second half of the nineteenth century. Charles-François Daubigny and his son Karl, also a painter, visited Dordrecht during the autumn of 1871. Despite the beauty of Dordrecht’s picturesque historic center, a popular motif for contemporary painters such as Eugene Boudin and Johan Barthold Jongkind as it sold well on the Parisian art market, Daubigny followed his specialism in painting rivers, lakes and coastlines when turning to the waterscape surrounding Dordrecht.