Guided tour of the exhibition "Les couleurs de la mer. Charles-François (1817-1878) and Karl (1846-1886) Daubigny in Normandy.
This exhibition reveals for the first time to the public the artistic gaze on the Normandy coast by Charles-François Daubigny and his son Karl. For the father, in addition to the typology of Norman motifs and their variations, it makes it possible to illustrate the fascinating process of open-air work that he adopted at Villerville, of «pochades» marked by an extremely free touch to large-format works intended for exhibitions at the Salon. Thus, according to his biographer Frédéric Henriet, the Vue de Villerville, presented at the Salon of 1864 (Mesdag Museum, The Hague) was realized entirely in the open air. Exploring the variety of compositions realized in contact with the motifs of the Normandy coast, the exhibition also offers the possibility of putting the works of Charles-François Daubigny in dialogue with a selection of paintings of someone of his illustrious contemporaries having worked on the Normandy coast (Courbet, Boudin, Monet, Jongkind). This comparison underlines the unique position of Daubigny recently illustrated by the important travelling exhibition (Cincinnati, Edinburgh, Amsterdam) which placed his work in a relationship of descent with Monet and Van Gogh. In fact, as Vincent Pomarède pointed out, Daubigny’s artistic impact is not limited to that of a smuggler who inspired the immediate approach to the nature of certain impressionists. He is also one of the few artists to have been able to renew himself in contact with this new generation of painters.