Artwork
Landscape with Mill
Landscape with Mill is an oil painting by the Post-Impressionist artist André Dauchez. It dates from 1940 and is held in the collection of the National Library of Wales.
About this work
Overview
Created in 1940, *Landscape with Mill* is an oil painting by French artist André Dauchez. The work presents a broad, open terrain punctuated by winding dirt tracks, a modest windmill near a cluster of buildings, and a sky filled with soft, moving clouds. Earthy greens and browns dominate the palette, accented by dry‑looking white and gray patches.
Subject & Meaning
The composition captures a quiet rural scene, emphasizing the relationship between land and architecture. The windmill, set against the expansive sky, serves as a focal point that draws the eye across the undulating fields, suggesting a timeless, contemplative atmosphere typical of Dauchez’s interest in landscape and seascape motifs.
Technique & Style
Dauchez employs a post‑impressionist approach, marked by visible, thick brushstrokes that create a textured surface. This impasto application lends the canvas a tactile quality, allowing the paint to stand out in relief and convey the roughness of the terrain and the softness of the clouds simultaneously.
History & Provenance
Born in Paris, Dauchez worked in various media, including watercolor, pastel, and engraving, before focusing on oil landscapes such as this one. *Landscape with Mill* entered the collection of the National Library of Wales, where it remains part of the institution’s holdings of early‑20th‑century French art.
Context
The painting emerges from the interwar period, a time when French artists were exploring new ways to depict light and atmosphere beyond Impressionism. Dauchez’s choice of a modest, everyday scene reflects the broader post‑impressionist tendency to infuse ordinary subjects with heightened emotional and textural resonance.
Artist & collection
Artist
André Eugène Dauchez (17 May 1870 – 15 May 1948), born in Paris, was a French painter, watercolourist, pastellist, engraver, draughtsman and illustrator known for landscapes, waterscapes and seascapes.
