Mills at Dordrecht

Painted in 1872, Mills at Dordrecht is a work by Charles-François Daubigny, now in the collection of Detroit Institute of Arts, that reflects the artistic concerns of the late 19th century — an era of fundamental transformation in both the methods and purposes of European and American painting. Charles-François Daubigny was the Barbizon painter most directly linked to Impressionism, working on his famous studio boat — the Botin — to capture the rivers of the Île-de-France under changing atmospheric conditions with an informality and speed that his academic contemporaries found unfinished but that Monet and Pissarro recognized as revelatory.

Daubigny painted with broad, summary strokes applied quickly to capture changing light and water effects. His palette is cool and fresh — blue-greens, silver grays, pale skies — with an informality of touch that the academic establishment criticized as sketchy but that directly inspired the Impress.