Atelier Daubigny — Plaque

Charles-Francois Daubigny came to Barbizon later than the founding generation -- he is sometimes called the link between the Barbizon School and the Impressionists, and the description is accurate. He painted rivers and canals from a studio boat he called the Botin, moving slowly through the waterways of the Oise and the Seine, capturing the light on water that Monet would later make the central subject of French painting.

His presence in Barbizon was less permanent than Millet's or Rousseau's, but significant enough to leave a plaque. He knew them all -- Corot was his friend and mentor, Rousseau his contemporary, and he later introduced Monet to the collector Durand-Ruel, a connection that helped launch Impressionism. The plaque marks a point of passage in the history of French art: the moment when the careful observation of the Barbizon painters began to dissolve into the light itself.