Banks of the Loing

William Lamb Picknell

ca. 1894–97 · Oil on canvas · The American Wing

This painting, shown at the Paris Salon of 1897, depicts the river that, channeled into a canal, flows through Moret-sur-Loing, the town near Fontainebleau, France, where Picknell and his wife settled in 1890. Among the artist’s last works, it displays the firm draftsmanship, clear articulation of form, and brilliant color effects that had won him critical recognition. Within a composition based on precise perspective, Picknell applied impressionistic touches of pigment. Canvases such as this one define his stylistic position between the academicians with whom he had studied and the French Impressionists.

Artist

William Lamb Picknell

Date

ca. 1894–97

Medium

Oil on canvas

Culture

American

Department

The American Wing

Credit line

Bequest of Mrs. Gertrude Flagg, 1905