The Farm (Cottage at the Edge of a Marsh)

c. 1860

Trees rise from this flat, marshy terrain into a cloud-filled sky. A woman walks though the damp landscape toward a cottage with a smoking chimney, which seems to offer the promise of shelter and warmth. Her red clothes call attention to her presence, while also emphasizing her isolation. The painting suggests the relative insignificance of human beings compared to the immensity of nature, a theme Rousseau often explored.

Medium	oil on panel
Dimensions	8 9/16 x 11 1/2 in. (21.8 x 29.2 cm) Frame: 14 3/4 x 17 7/8 x 2 1/4 in. (37.5 x 45.4 x 5.7 cm)
Object Number	1955.849
Acquisition	Acquired by Sterling and Francine Clark before 1955
Status	Off View

Image Caption

Théodore Rousseau, The Farm (Cottage at the Edge of a Marsh), c. 1860, oil on panel. Clark Art Institute, 1955.849

Select Bibliography

Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Exhibit Five, Supplement: South Gallery. Exhibition catalogue. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1959. Cass, David B. and Michael M. Floss. Alexandre Gabriel Decamps, 1803-1860. Exhibition catalogue. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1984. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. List of Paintings in the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1970. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. List of Paintings in the Sterling & Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1972. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. List of Paintings in the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1984. Kern, Steven, ed. List of Paintings in the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1992. Lees, Sarah, ed. Nineteenth-Century European Paintings at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute; New Haven and London: distributed by Yale University Press, 2012.

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Provenance

[Boussod, Valadon, Paris]; Mary J. Morgan, New York (d. 1885, her sale, American Art Association, New York, 4 Mar. 1886, no. 142, as Landscape, sold to Garland); James A. Garland, Boston (1886–d. 1906, his sale, American Art Galleries, New York, 19 Mar. 1909, no. 5); [Knoedler, New York]; Edwin H. Fricke, Calistoga, Calif. (until 1945, his sale, Parke-Bernet, New York, 15 Mar. 1945, no. 13, as La Ferme); Robert Sterling Clark (probably 1945–55); Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1955.