The River 

Jules Dupre created The River using oil paints, a traditional fine art material, to capture a landscape scene. Dupre’s application of paint, particularly the varied earth tones and muted greens, reflects a direct engagement with the landscape, one filtered through personal feeling. The brushstrokes themselves are loose and expressive. Note the sky, seemingly brushed and blurred together with shades of gray and white, almost as if to capture a fleeting impression of the scene. The ways in which Dupre used painterly techniques allowed him to express not just the visual appearance of the landscape, but also its atmosphere and emotional resonance. The act of painting ‘en plein air,’ or outdoors, was not merely about representation. It signaled a shift towards valuing direct sensory experience and individual interpretation, breaking from the more academic and idealized depictions of the past. As such, this work stands as an example of how art can reflect and shape our relationship with the world around us.