Charles-François Daubigny, 'The Garden Wall, Auvers-sur-Oise', 1860s

This view shows a path running along a white wall with a grassy common to the right. The wall features two pale brown gates. Trees behind the wall suggest a garden or orchard. Although we are not sure of the exact location of the scene, it is almost certainly in the vicinity of Auvers-sur-Oise, which Daubigny first visited in 1850, and where he later built a house and studio. He painted a number of views of the walled gardens running along the banks of the Oise, for example Banks of the Oise near Auvers (Mesdag Collection, The Hague). While the view here does not include the river itself, the white wall and green door suggest a similar subject. Cezanne and Pissarro also portrayed such walled gardens both in Auvers and in the neighbouring village of Pontoise.

The whole picture is broadly painted and light in tone. The pale grey paint of the wall is overlaid with small, square touches of creams, yellows and pinks, giving a sense of dappled sunlight. The path is similarly painted in broad touches of cream, pink and green paint.