Henri-Joseph Harpignies, 'A River Scene', about 1850-70

Henri-Joseph Harpignies saw himself as a painter of real life. From the outset, he dissociated himself from his older contemporaries – from the smooth, meticulous style of neo-classical artists such as Ingres and from the flamboyance of the Romantics like Delacroix. Yet in this tiny picture, made very early in his career, the silhouetted trees against a luminous sky, the reflections in the glowing water and the solitary figures walking away from us, have a certain romantic appeal.

The water is still, but the straight edge made by the flat stones and pebbles that jut into the stream suggests a waterfall down into a deeper valley. At first simply dark and almost monochrome, a close look reveals myriad greens and browns among the trees on the bank, their bushy tops breaking the skyline of the hill behind them. The white robe of one figure lights up the picture, while the misty blue robe and blonde hair of the other are hardly discernible in the shadows. The two together bring a touch of mystery to the image. Disproportionately small in scale, they also serve to accentuate the height and majesty of the tree that towers above them.

We don’t know where the scene is set. It may be imaginary, based on sketches Harpignies made when exploring the countryside he loved. He became an expert on trees, depicting them accurately and in detail, although the darkness of the painting makes the ones here difficult to identify. He painted many evening and moonlit scenes, perhaps always revealing his romantic side.

Although he was interested in depicting the real world, Harpignies never became a realist in the style of the Barbizon group of painters, with their gritty, often painful scenes of manual labour. His landscapes were more allied with the harmonious scenes of nature by his friend and fellow artist Corot. They were both inspired by the work of Claude and Poussin, the seventeenth-century classical artists of Rome.