A River Landscape with Storks 1864

Charles-François Daubigny created this oil on panel painting called ‘A River Landscape with Storks.’ His landscapes offer a fresh, naturalistic view of the French countryside, marking a shift away from the more idealized and historical scenes that had long dominated academic painting in France. Daubigny was deeply involved with the Barbizon School, a group of artists who advocated painting "en plein air," directly from nature. They aimed to capture the fleeting effects of light and atmosphere. This approach represented a challenge to the rigid hierarchies of the French art establishment, which prioritized studio work and historical subjects. Daubigny's commitment to painting the landscape as he saw it, with its unadorned reality, signaled a broader democratization of subject matter in art. By focusing on the ordinary beauty of the French countryside, Daubigny and his peers elevated the status of the common landscape, and questioned traditional values upheld by institutions like the École des Beaux-Arts. To understand this shift fully, we can look to exhibition records, artists' letters, and critical reviews. Art's meaning is often contingent on its social and institutional context.