The Pont Neuf

Johan Barthold Jongkind

Oil on canvas

Metropolitan Museum of Art

A dramatic Parisian sky churns overhead as Jongkind captures the Seine at the Pont Neuf, with the towers of Notre-Dame rising faintly through the haze in the distance. Barges, laundresses, and dockworkers animate the muddy riverbank, rendered with loose, atmospheric brushwork that prioritizes mood and light over precise detail. Jongkind, a Dutch painter who settled in France, was a crucial forerunner of Impressionism, and his fluid handling of weather and water famously inspired the young Claude Monet. This moody riverscape brings the romance of 19th-century Paris and the birth of modern painting into any room.