Two Figures by a Small Watergate
Medium
Etching on blue paper
Dimensions
plate: 3 1/16 x 4 7/16 in. (7.8 x 11.4 cm) sheet: 6 3/4 x 8 7/8 in. (17.2 x 22.5 cm) frame: 14 1/4 x 16 1/4 in. (36.2 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1980
Accession Number
1980.1077.4
Tags
Art Historical Context
Henri-Joseph Harpignies a prominent French artist of the 19th associated with the Barbizon school captures a quiet, intimate landscape in *Two Figures by a Smallgate*. This undated etching depicts two human figures near a modest watergate—likely a sluice or lock watery surroundings—evoking the serene, naturalistic scenes Harpignies favored. Working in the tradition of artists like Corot, he celebrated the subtle beauty of rural France, blending precise observation with romantic atmosphere. Rendered on striking blue paper, the small plate (just 3 1/16 x 4 7/16 inches) showcases Harpignies' mas...
About the Artist
Henri-Joseph Harpignies · 1819–1916
Henri-Joseph Harpignies (1819–1916) was a French landscape painter and watercolorist of extraordinary longevity whose career spanned nearly the entire history of nineteenth-century French art. Born in Valenciennes in northern France, he came to painting relatively late, beginning serious study only in his late twenties under Jean-Alexis Achard, a landscape painter working in the naturalist traditi...