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Your galleryThe Marsh
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Scan the low horizon from tree to tree, then look for thin reeds interrupting their reflections in the foreground water.
Daubigny’s 1871 marsh is organized in broad horizontal layers: water, a low strip of land, and open sky. The few taller trees interrupt that quiet structure without closing the view. Reflections make land and water resemble one another, while the fine upright reeds distinguish the nearest shallows.
Oil on panel · 34.4 × 58.2 cm · Art Institute of Chicago · Barbizon School
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Details and source
- Museum title
- The Marsh
- Artist
- Charles François Daubigny (French, 1817–1878)
- Date
- 1871
- Medium
- Oil on panel
- Dimensions
- 34.4 × 58.2 cm (13 9/16 × 22 15/16 in.); Framed: 46.4 × 70.2 × 5.1 cm (18 1/4 × 27 5/8 × 2 in.)
- Credit line
- Henry Field Memorial Collection
- Image license
- CC0 1.0 · Public domain
- Museum record
- Art Institute of Chicago
Galler’s rooms and hanging scale are imagined. The image is the museum’s original digital reproduction.






