Charles-François Daubigny

Mihály Munkácsy, Paris 
Catholina Lambert, Paterson, New Jersey (and sold, his sale, American Art Galleries, New York, February 22, 1916, lot 126, illustrated) 
Knoedler & Co., New York (acquired at the above sale) 
Harold Somers (and sold, Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, May 26, 1943, lot 36, illustrated, as The Orchard)
Kurt Stern, New York (acquired at the above sale)
Knoedler and Co., New York
J.K. Thannhauser, New York
Sale: Sotheby's, London, March 30, 1966, lot 47, illustrated
Arthur Tooth & Sons, London (acquired at the above sale)
Harold Sawers (by 1976)
Acquavella Galleries, New York
Acquired from the above in June 1978

Connaissance des Arts, May 1967, p. 39, no. 6
Madeleine Fidell-Beaufort and Janine Bailly-Herzberg, Daubigny, Paris, 1975, p. 180, no. 124, illustrated
Robert Hellebranth, Charles-François Daubigny 1817-1878, Morges, 1976, p. 316, no. 969, illustrated

Lined. The surface presents well and appears clean and bright. Minor loss at the extreme right upper edge visible in current framing. Under UV: no apparent issues.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

In Le verger, Charles-François Daubigny captures the essence of spring, when delicate pink blossoms burst from the apple trees amid a verdant, emerald landscape and under a pale blue sky. He painted the subject every year beginning in 1857. Vincent Van Gogh, who constantly experimented with rendering the changing of the seasons, was particularly fascinated with Daubigny’s spring orchards, and they inspired a number of his own landscapes (fig. 1). For Van Gogh, Daubigny was one of the “pioneers of modern landscape painting” and he felt that his works “[captured] on canvas the poetic emotions that the landscape evoked” (Nienke Bakker, “In Daubigny’s Footsteps: Vincent Van Gogh,” Inspiring Impressionism: Daubigny, Monet, Van Gogh, exh. cat., Taft Museum of Art, Cincinnati; Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh; Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, 2016, p. 106). Van Gogh likely saw many of Daubigny’s orchards when working at Goupil. Furthermore, it is known that he saw Spring (1857, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Chartres), one of Daubigny’s earliest orchards that similarly depicts peasants in a tree-lined and light-filled landscape, when it was in the Musée du Luxembourg. In an 1875 letter to his brother Theo, Van Gogh wrote that Spring had made an impression on him (Bakker, p. 105). The earliest known owner of Le verger was Mihály Munkácsy, the preeminent Hungarian painter of the nineteenth century. He was greatly influenced by the Barbizon school and completed a number of landscapes while visiting the region in 1873. This interest extended to his personal collection, and he owned at least one other painting of an apple orchard in bloom by Daubigny (Pommiers en fleurs, sold, his sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, June 2-4, 1898, lot 46).