Washerwomen at the Oise River near Valmondois

Charles-François Daubigny

National Gallery of Art

This painting shows a tranquil river scene with a distant horizon on the left showing rolling landscapes, trees, and small brown buildings across calm water. Closest to us, on the left, clusters of trees with dark branches hang over the water, casting reflections on the water's gray surface. There appear to be two people at the edge of the water who are kneeling down, but the details are unclear. The sky is light blue with small white clouds drifting across it. The color palette includes deep greens, browns, blues, and whites, and the brushstrokes are visible, with long, thick strokes for the sky and background, and shorter, dotted ones in the trees.