Théodore Rousseau, 'Landscape', around 1865

In the distance a chain of hills is sketched in blue. A plain in the foreground is dappled in yellow, which echoes the fragmented light of the sky. In the sky itself the rather thin and wispy application of blue paint leaves much of the millboard support exposed, its grey colour standing in for the clouds. Rousseau added further clouds with random strokes in a bright white paint. Some of these, particularly near the horizon, are tinged with pink. A lone figure, sketched in brown, faces away from the viewer, contemplating the hills. The trunks and foliage of a line of trees to the left are sketched in brown paint and black crayon. The trunks themselves throw long shadows, also sketched in black crayon. Among the trunks and branches touches of pink are possibly meant to represent blossom.

This is an extremely atmospheric scene, which has been variously described as rainy or moonlit. The pervading grey of the millboard combined with the ethereal quality of the trees and the scudding white clouds gives a sense of silvery light normally associated with the moon, but in fact the time of day is difficult to determine. The pink tinged clouds might suggest a time around sunset or sunrise.

Possibly painted from memory in the studio, the work is typical of Rousseau’s later style. His biographer Alfred Sensier writes of his ‘liberty of conception’ at this period: ‘He sketched with a fevered hand canvases where the wild compositions carried along his thoughts; dawns given movement by clouds fleeing at the approach of day…suns setting at the end of day in retinues of clouds and glories of radiated jets.’ The visibility of the drawing is also typical of the artist, for whom the preliminary sketching in was of great importance. Earlier in his career he had also made detailed drawings on canvas; these would start out as preliminary sketches, but become increasingly finished to the point that he would start the picture again on a fresh canvas.