Landscape with the Seine

Antonín Chittussi's 'Landscape with the Seine' (1885) is one of his French river subjects — the Seine as the great water artery of northern France that had been depicted by Impressionist painters from Monet to Sisley as the central subject of the Paris basin landscape. Chittussi's engagement with the Seine connected him to this Impressionist river painting tradition while his Barbizon-influenced approach gave his treatment a tonal quality different from the Impressionists' more coloristic investigations of the river.

Chittussi renders the Seine landscape with his characteristic atmospheric tonal approach — the river's reflections of the sky, the riverside vegetation, and the quality of the Paris basin light on the water observed with direct naturalist honesty. His handling of the spatial depth of the river landscape and the atmospheric quality of the Seine valley creates the landscape's characteristic character within his Barbizon-influenced technique.