Fishing Boats by a Stream

Charles-François Daubigny's 1874 painting of fishing boats by a stream belongs to the quieter, more intimate end of his river and marine subjects — small craft moored or at rest on a narrow waterway rather than the broader river compositions for which he is best known. These intimate stream subjects allowed Daubigny to focus on close observation of reflected light, still water, and the textures of wooden hulls and rigging in proximity. By 1874 his influence on the younger generation of Impressionist painters was fully established. The Sheffield Galleries and Museums Trust holds this as an example of the Barbizon engagement with water subjects that fed directly into French Impressionism.

Daubigny's handling of still water in narrow waterways is characteristically atmospheric: the reflections of hulls and sky rendered in slightly broken, horizontal strokes. The warm browns of weathered timber and the cool greens of bank vegetation create a simple but harmonious palette. The composition is intimate, the view close and low.