The Majestic Beauty of Rivers Captured in The Metropolitan Museum

The Metropolitan Museum has a wide array of artworks depicting rivers. These artworks come from all over the world and span a wide range of time periods. Rivers have long been an important part of human life, providing a source of water, transportation, and food. They have also been a source of inspiration for artists throughout history. The artworks in The Metropolitan Museum provide a glimpse into how different cultures have viewed and depicted rivers.

Venice: The Rialto

    Guardi's views of Venice were hugely popular among eighteenth-century visitors to the city.
    However, not all of the paintings were by the artist himself.
    His workshop reproduced compositions and motifs based on his earlier paintings and drawings, while emulators took advantage of the market for the taste he had helped to set.

Steamboats in the Port of Rouen

    Pissarro was already enraptured by "the beautiful motifs of the quays, which will make famous paintings."
    This is one of several views of the busy port that he painted from the window of his room at the Hôtel de Paris.
    Across the river in the background may be seen the wharves and warehouses of the working-class Saint-Sever district.

View of the Seine

    The artist made about seventy oil studies on small wood panels, which he called croquetons.
    These boards were easily transported and held in the hand, making them ideal for painting outdoors.
    This is among the earliest of the studies that Seurat made along the Seine River on the outskirts of Paris.

Allée of Chestnut Trees

    In the 1860's, Sisley met Pissarro, Monet, Bazille, and Renoir, with whom he brought forth the practice of painting directly from nature.
    Sisley enjoyed short-lived but considerable success during the 1870's.
    Sisley painted this view of a curved pathway lined with chestnut trees in full bloom.

Castle by a River

    The scene of fishermen casting their net in front of a moated fortress catered to a taste for picturesque and ancient architecture.
    Working on the smooth surface of an oak panel allowed Van Goyen to achieve a variety of painterly effects and enliven a limited color palette as he evoked crumbling masonry, rippling water, or cottony clouds.
    Although the artist studied medieval monuments in preparing such scenes, the castle shown here is imaginary, pieced together from both observation and fantasy.

Picquigny

    Thaulow earned great success with his depictions of the rivers and byways of northern France.
    This canvas shows the village of Picquigny, near Amiens on the river Somme, where the Norwegian painter worked for several weeks in the late autumn of 1899.
    The composition adopts a downward vantage point that emphasizes the eddying water and its ever-changing colors, reflections, and illumination.

Wyoming Valley, Pennsylvania

    This is an oil study for Cropsey's monumental "Valley of Wyoming" (66.113).
    The view is from a promontory called Inman's Hill, looking north across the valley, which is intersected by the Susquehanna River.
    In contrast to the large, elaborately detailed canvas, the present work was painted broadly and quickly.

Delaware Water Gap