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Your galleryPond in the Woods
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Find the bright opening of sky, then follow its reflection down through the trees into the pond.
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.
Oil on canvas · 68 × 89.8 cm · Art Institute of Chicago · Barbizon School
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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
Galler’s rooms and hanging scale are imagined. The image is the museum’s original digital reproduction.







