Johan Barthold Jongkind

(Dutch, 1819–1891)

Johan Barthold Jongkind was a Dutch landscape painter that played an integral role in the development of Impressionism. Jongkind’s use of broken brushstrokes to create shimmering light in works such as La Seine et Notre-Dame de Paris (1864), led Édouard Manet to pronounce him “the father of modern landscape.” Born on June 3, 1819 in Latrop, Netherlands, he first trained with Andreas Schelfhout in The Hague, before moving to Paris where he received instruction from Louis-Gabriel-Eugène Isabey. Many of Jongkind’s early works show the influence of 17th-century Dutch landscape painters as well as the silvery light of Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot. In 1862, Jongkind exhibited at the Salon des Refusés, where his paintings were lauded by Eugène Boudin and Claude Monet for their innovative technique. Monet later recounted that Jongkind acted a mentor to him during the 1860s, while they both were living and working in the town of Honfleur. Throughout his life, the artist struggled with mental illness and alcoholism which often led to his friends and art dealers needing to provide financial assistance. He died on February 9, 1891 in La Côte-Saint-André, France. Today, Jongkind’s works are held in the collections of the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the National Gallery in London, and the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, among others.