Cleveland Museum of Art

The Oak Tree and the Reed

Charles François DaubignyLinkedCulture matchlcp-6de9dbe1d080

Date: c. 1873
Medium: blue, gray, and black wash, and graphite
Culture: France, 19th century
Department: Drawings
Institution: Cleveland Museum of Art
Object ID: 166636

From the Cleveland Museum of Art record

The Oak Tree and the Reed illustrates the fable of the same name by the 17th-century French writer Jean de La Fontaine (1621-1695). Having disdainfully pitied the reed for bending before the wind, the oak is shown torn from the earth by a terrific north wind. Focusing upon the uprooted oak, Daubigny created a violently expressive treatment of the subject. The bold dappling of lights and darks below is set off by the intense blue of the clouds encroaching upon the land from the left. The diagonal streaks of thin-ly applied gray wash above suggest driving rain.

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Provenance & credit

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Credit line: Bequest of Muriel Butkin
Provenance: Probably c. 1873-1904: Hector Giacomelli [1822-1904, L. 1311], Versailles | 1905: (Hotel Drouot, H. Giacomelli collection sale, Paris, April 13-15, 1905, no. 71, sold to Giacomelli) | 1905-?: Giacomelli | ?-1976: François Gosselin, Paris, sold to Shepherd Gallery, New York | 1976: (Shepherd Gallery, New York, sold to Muriel Butkin, Shaker Heights, OH) | 1976-2008: Muriel Butkin [1916-2008], Cleveland, OH, by bequest to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Shaker Heights, OH | 2008-: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH