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The sombre colours and dying glow of the evening light in this rustic landscape evoke autumn, the inevitable passage of time and a certain melancholy. Leaves on the cluster of poplar trees are crisp and beginning to turn brown. On the scrubby grass beneath the trees, a few dabs of paint suggest late blooming flowers or perhaps leaves already fallen.We don’t know where the scene is set. It’s most likely to be from Harpignies’ imagination, but based on his knowledge of and affection for the countryside of the Yonne, the area south of Paris that he visited often and where he lived in his retirement. Harpignies was familiar with the gritty realism of contemporary landscape but, influenced by the classical artists of seventeenth-century Rome, he preferred to portray nature in a state of harmony.

The National Gallery, London

London

Title

Autumn Evening

Date

1894

Medium

Oil on canvas

Measurements

H 116.8 x W 160 cm

Accession number

NG6325

Acquisition method

Bequeathed by Pandeli Ralli, 1928

Work type

Painting

The National Gallery, London

Trafalgar Square, London, Greater London WC2N 5DN England

View venue

Artist or maker

Henri-Joseph Harpignies

1819–1916

View profile

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