Sketches: The Hotel de Ville, Tours and a Girl Playing (recto); Stork (verso)
1837/78
Medium
Graphite (recto and verso) on ivory wove paper
Dimensions
12.5 × 19.9 cm (4 15/16 × 7 7/8 in.)
Classification
graphite
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
112899
Art Historical Context
Charles François Daubigny, a pioneering French landscape artist and key figure in the Barbizon School, created this intimate double-sided graphite sketch around 1837–1878, spanning much of his career. On the recto, delicate lines capture the grand Hôtel de Ville in Tours, France—a Renaissance-style town hall—alongside a playful girl in motion, blending architecture with everyday life. The verso features a quick study of a stork, hinting at Daubigny's lifelong fascination with nature's fleeting moments. These sketches, executed in graphite on smooth ivory wove paper (12.5 × 19.9 cm), exemplify...
About the Artist
Charles François Daubigny (French) · 1817 –1878
French, Paris 1817–1878 Paris