Sign in or join

See it hung

Pond in the Woods

Look first

  • What catches your attention?
  • Where does your eye go next?
  • What would you ask about this work?
Show me

Find the bright opening of sky, then follow its reflection down through the trees into the pond.

Skip to the reading

Diaz places the pond inside a dense enclosure of trunks and foliage. The small opening above becomes important because so much of the canvas remains dark. Its reflection connects sky and water, while scattered bright touches on leaves and bark keep the woodland from becoming a single undifferentiated mass.

Spot an error?

Oil on canvas · 68 × 89.8 cm · Art Institute of Chicago · Barbizon School

Read more at the Art Institute of Chicago

Sources

Look again

What do you notice now?

Try a quick sketch

Take a minute to sketch on any paper. No upload needed.

What did you draw first? What did you leave out?

Details and source

Museum title
Pond in the Woods
Artist
Narcisse Virgile Diaz de la Peña (French, 1807–1876)
Date
1862
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
68 × 89.8 cm (26 3/4 × 35 3/8 in.); Framed: 102.3 × 124.5 cm (40 1/4 × 49 in.)
Credit line
Mr. and Mrs. W. W. Kimball Collection
Image license
CC0 1.0 · Public domain
Museum record
Art Institute of Chicago

Artist’s life 1807–1876

Barbizon School c. 1830–1870

View in the Atlas

Galler’s rooms and hanging scale are imagined. The image is the museum’s original digital reproduction.

Pond in the Woods · Narcisse Virgile Diaz de la Peña, 1862
Fit
MuseumM
Shortcuts ?
Enter
Look closer
+ −
Zoom in / out
0
Fit the whole artwork
← → ↑ ↓
Pan the image while zoomed
← →
Previous / next artwork, outside this view
M
Enter or return to the museum
Esc
Close this view; press again to enter the museum

Tab moves between controls. Browser zoom shortcuts stay available.

Pond in the Woods, Narcisse Virgile Diaz de la Peña

+ − Zoom · Arrow keys pan · M Museum · Esc Close