The Hamlet of Optevoz 1847 - 1857

Charles François Daubigny made "The Hamlet of Optevoz," an undated graphite drawing heightened with white gouache on tan paper. Daubigny was one of the painters who, in the mid-19th century, turned to the French countryside for subject matter. His landscapes departed from the academic tradition that valued historical or mythological subject matter, and embraced instead the ordinary rural world. This aesthetic was a reaction against the industrialized urban centers of the time, and it valued direct observation of nature. The landscapes that Daubigny and his peers produced were thus critical of the institutional values of the French academy. To further understand an artwork like this, we might consult the writings of contemporary art critics, the exhibition records of the French Salon, and even the economic history of the French art market in the 19th century. In doing so, we recognize the artist as embedded in a set of social and institutional relations.