The Oak Tree and the Reed (c. 1873): Art, History and Details

The Oak Tree and the Reed (c. 1873) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Charles François Daubigny (French, 1817–1878).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

The Oak Tree and the Reed illustrates the fable of the same name by the 17th-century French writer Jean de La Fontaine (1621-1695). Having disdainfully pitied the reed for bending before the wind, the oak is shown torn from the earth by a terrific north wind. Focusing upon the uprooted oak, Daubigny created a violently expressive treatment of the subject. The bold dappling of lights and darks below is set off by the intense blue of the clouds encroaching upon the land from the left. The diagonal streaks of thin-ly applied gray wash above suggest driving rain.

Object facts

• Title: The Oak Tree and the Reed
• Date: c. 1873
• Creator attribution: Charles François Daubigny (French, 1817–1878)
• Culture: France, 19th century
• Type: Drawing
• Technique: blue, gray, and black wash, and graphite
• Dimensions: Sheet: 29.3 x 23 cm (11 9/16 x 9 1/16 in.)
• Collection: DR - French
• Department: Drawings
• Accession number: 2008.357

Collection credit

Bequest of Muriel Butkin

Further reading listed by the museum

• Hotel Drouot, Paris. Tableaux, dessins et aquarelles...la Collection de feu H. Giacomelli, Artiste-Peintre. April 13-15, 1905. Lot 71.
• Shepherd Gallery. Non-Dissenters; One Hundred and Seventy French Nineteenth Century Drawings, Pastels and Watercolors. November 1, through December 31, 1976. Exh. Cat. New York: Shepherd Gallery, 1976.
• Foster, Carter E., Sylvain Bellenger, and Patrick Shaw Cable. French Master Drawings from the Collection of Muriel Butkin. Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2001.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.