The Stream (Le Ruisseau du Puits-Noir; vallée de la Loue)

Gustave Courbet

National Gallery of Art

Dense canopies enclose a forested interior along a stream in this horizontal landscape painting. Only a couple small patches of ultramarine-blue sky peek through the canopies, which are painted with dabs and strokes of pine, olive, and spring green. Dark trunks stand straight or curve up through the foliage. The stream begins in the lower right corner of the canvas and moves into the distance along the right half of the composition. Rippling water is painted with shades of muted green, ice blue, and very pale pink. Grassy patches line the dirt ground to the left. The artist signed and dated the painting in the lower left corner, “G. Courbet ’55.”