Les champs au mois de juin (Fields in the Month of June)

Charles François Daubigny

1874

Oil on canvas

Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art

When “Fields in the Month of June” was shown in the Salon of 1874, Daubigny’s rapid juxtaposition of brushstrokes, absence of detail, spots of brilliant color, and immediacy represented a dramatic move away from the classical polish of official Salon painting. Courbet’s skilled use of the palette knife and Jules Breton’s treatment of rural subject matter contributed to Daubigny’s style as much as the decision to work in natural sunlight for a more direct translation of his settings. His innovative treatment of landscape would, in retrospect, be viewed by historians as a transitional moment between the style of the Salon (on whose ju