Landscape with Boatman

Théodore Rousseau

National Gallery of Art

The painting shows a landscape with a calm body of water stretching across the center, beyond a brown bank of rocks and short green grass. A thin tree rises up on the left. To the right of center, a person can be seen on a boat, silhouetted against the blue water. Beyond the water are flat green fields with distant trees. To the left of center, a small gray house can be seen next to a tall tree, wisps of gray smoke rising out of its chimney. The sky above is blue with large clouds in shades of light gray and white, and the distance is illuminated by pale light. The water reflects the blue and white of the sky, along with the green and brown of the house and the distant bank.