Moonrise on the Loire at Briare
Artist
Henri Joseph Harpignies
(French, 1819-1916)
Date1866
MediumOil on canvas
Dimensions50 1/4 x 85 1/4 in. (127.6 x 216.5 cm)
Overall, Frame: 54 x 87 1/4 in. (137.2 x 221.6 cm)
Overall, Frame: 54 x 87 1/4 in. (137.2 x 221.6 cm)
ClassificationsEuropean art
Credit LineGift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.
Object number71.658
Terms
- Evening
- Green
- Yellow
- Violet
- Paris
Collections
On View
Not on viewLabel TextHenri Joseph Harpignies French (1819-1916) Moonrise on the Loire at Briare, 1866 Oil on canvas Gift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. 71.658 Celebrated today as one of the last major painters of the Barbizon school of landscapists, Harpignies was influenced especially by the art of Camille Corot (whose painting The Roman Campagna in Winter is also on view here). During his middle years Harpignies often worked in the Nivernais region in central France, painting the countryside along the Loire River. This is the setting of Harpignies's unusually large and ambitious Moonrise on the Loire at Briare, which he painted in 1866 and showed at the 1885 Salon. The poetic twilight scene captures the fleeting atmosphere of early evening, when the sun has set but still lights the sky. Majestic oaks, already shrouded in shadow, are silhouetted against the sky's fading light. Just beneath them, barely visible in the gathering darkness, a figure hurries along a country path.
