Château-Gaillard at Sunset

A key member of the Barbizon group, Daubigny took a direct approach to painting nature, treating the half-ruined castle in this view as if it were a rock—not an object of historical interest but a part of nature and an excuse for observation of light and atmospheric effects. He painted four views of the castle under varying light conditions, anticipating Monet’s experiments with serial painting by some twenty years. In the 1860s, Daubigny sat on the jury for the Salon, an annual state-sponsored exhibition in Paris, and there proved a passionate advocate for the young Impressionists Pissarro, Cézanne, and Renoir.