Provenance
(Wilhelm Schaus Gallery, New York), at least in 1879.[1] Charles A. Dana [1819-1897], New York. (sale, American Art Association, at Chickering Hall, New York, 10 April 1900, no. 77); (M. Knoedler & Co., New York); sold April 1900 to William A. Clark [1839-1925], New York;[2] bequest 1926 to the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington; acquired 2015 by the National Gallery of Art.
[1] "Notes," _The Art Journal_ 5, n.s. (November 1879): 352, discussing the exhibition of the painting at the Schaus Gallery. Hermann Schaus took over his uncle's business in 1886, but continued to use the original name even after his uncle's death in 1895.
[2] See Knoedler Stock Book 5, stock no. 9172, p. 23, row 14. The date of Knoedler's purchase is unclear. According to Knoedler's stockbook, the company acquired the painting on 2 April 1900 and sold it to Clark on 10 April of the same year. However, the Knoedler record also notes that the painting was purchased at the American Art Association sale which was on 10 April 1900. According to Arthur Hoeber, _The Barbizon Painters: Being the Story of the Men of Thirty_, New York, 1915: 133, the work was still in Knoedler's possession at the time of publication.
Accession Number
2015.19.27
Medium
oil on wood
Dimensions
overall: 78.74 × 104.14 cm (31 × 41 in.) | framed: 110.49 × 135.89 × 12.7 cm (43 1/2 × 53 1/2 × 5 in.)
Classification
Painting
Credit Line
Corcoran Collection (William A. Clark Collection)
Tags
Painting Impressionist & Modern (1851–1900) Oil Painting French
Background & Context
Background Story
Narcisse Virgile Diaz de la Pena (1807-1876) was a French painter known for the atmospheric, richly colored forest scenes that make him one of the most important painters of the Barbizon School. The Frog Pond from 1876 depicts a frog pond in the atmospheric, richly colored manner that distinguishes Diaz's best work from the more general landscape painting of his contemporaries. Diaz was known for his atmospheric, richly colored forest scenes of the Forest of Fontainebleau, and the 1876 date places this in the period when the Barbizon School was producing its most accomplished forest scenes, and the frog pond subject shows Diaz's talent for depicting the forest with both atmospheric effect and rich color.
Cultural Impact
The Frog Pond is important in the history of French landscape painting because it demonstrates the atmospheric, richly colored manner that Diaz brought to forest scenes as one of the most important painters of the Barbizon School. Diaz's atmospheric, richly colored forest scenes—depicting the Forest of Fontainebleau with the rich color and atmospheric effect that are his most distinctive contributions—represent one of the most important traditions in French landscape painting, and the 1876 painting shows this tradition at its most atmospheric and richly colored.
Why It Matters
The Frog Pond is Diaz's atmospheric Barbizon forest scene: a frog pond rendered in the richly colored manner of one of the most important painters of the Barbizon School. The 1876 painting shows the atmospheric effect and rich color of the Forest of Fontainebleau that make Diaz one of the most important Barbizon painters.
