Narcisse-Virgilio Diaz de la Peña, 'Common with Stormy Sunset', 1850

A small dark silhouetted figure sits fishing at the edge of a pool on a common. The location is almost certainly near the village of Barbizon in the forest of Fontainebleau. The tree immediately to the figure’s left is set against a tumultuous sunset sky. This is an early example of a subject to which Diaz returned much later in his career. In numerous paintings he depicted watery plains with solitary fishermen, dominant trees standing out against dramatic skies, and light reflected in water. In fact, he became well known for his predilection for sunsets, which allowed him to display his talent in using rich and bold colour, which was compared at the time to ‘the explosion of fireworks.’ The composition and light effects of such works also show the influence of Théodore Rousseau, whom Diaz famously followed into the forest of Fontainebleau in around 1836 to observe how he painted.

Random strokes of rich yellows, pinks and oranges are interspersed with small streaks of pink. In the sky, darker grey clouds hint at a passing storm, and strong sloping strokes on the horizon at the left suggest rainfall. The horizon at the right is clearer, the feathery outlines of bushes standing out against a pale grey. In general, the paint is thickly applied, but in some areas the paint layers and ground have been scraped back to reveal the warm colour of the wood panel itself. At the top of the painting the grey clouds are randomly and thinly painted, so that all the strokes of the brush are visible.