Cows in a Meadow, ca. 1866

Although Charles-François Daubigny is usually associated with the painters of the Barbizon School, one of the locations where he painted and drew from nature was the Forest of Fontainebleau. He usually spent the summer months in Auvers-sur-Oise, and also travelled a great deal both at home and abroad. Daubigny also owned ‘le Botin’ a painter’s boat on which he sailed down the River Oise and the Seine. The sketch entitled Cows in Meadow was painted during one of these rambles. It is a fleeting impression painted with a quick and sketchy touch. The size and material of the support, a panel, suggests that it was painted directly, to capture the motif.