River View in France, possibly near Pontoise

This 1855 canvas, showing a river view in France possibly near Pontoise on the Oise northwest of Paris, places Jongkind in the Île-de-France region that would become central to Impressionist landscape painting in the following decade. Pontoise and the surrounding Oise valley were frequented by Corot and Daubigny in the 1850s, and Jongkind was part of the same Barbizon-adjacent circle of painters committed to outdoor direct observation. The Oise's broad, calm surface and the agricultural land along its banks offered a landscape type that connected Dutch and French outdoor painting traditions — the broad river acting as mirror to the sky, the low banks providing an uncluttered horizon. This early work shows Jongkind's developing synthesis of Dutch tonal tradition and French plein-air directness that would mature into his characteristic style. The Rijksmuseum holds this canvas.

The river's reflective surface is the compositional key, its calm water mirroring the sky and breaking the distinction between above and below. Jongkind's handling in 1855 is somewhat tighter than his later free manner, with more worked passages in the sky and careful attention to the tonal relationship between the landscape's elements.