Road near La Côte-Saint-André

Art Historical Context

Johan Barthold Jongkind’s *Road near La Côte-Saint-André* captures a quiet stretch of rural France in 1885, rendered in delicate watercolor washes over a black-chalk underdrawing. A Dutch artist long resident in France, Jongkind was admired by the younger Impressionists for his ability to suggest changing light and atmosphere with economical means. The modest sheet, measuring just over seven by twelve inches, belongs to the Metropolitan Museum’s collection of drawings and prints, where it entered in 1917 as part of the Isaac D. Fletcher bequest. The combination of chalk and watercolor allowed Jongkind to establish firm structure while permitting the luminous, fluid effects for which he is celebrated. Broad, transparent strokes convey the soft sky and roadside foliage, while the darker chalk lines anchor the receding road and the silhouettes of trees. The result is an intimate landscape that invites viewers to feel the gentle pace of travel through the French countryside. Though small in scale, the work reflects Jongkind’s lifelong fascination with the everyday poetry of roads, fields, and villages—subjects that would continue to inspire generations of landscape painters.

About the Artist

Johan Barthold Jongkind · 1819–1891

Johan Barthold Jongkind (1819–1891) was born on June 3 in the rural village of Lattrop, in the Netherlands' Overijssel province, and emerged as a pivotal figure bridging Dutch landscape traditions with the dawn of Impressionism. He began his formal training at The Hague's art academy under the esteemed landscape painter Andreas Schelfhout, whose influence rooted Jongkind in the meticulous depictio...