DAUBIGNY, CHARLES FRANcOIS (1817-1878), French landscape painter, allied in several ways with the Barbizon school, was born in Paris, on Feb. 15, 1817, but spent much time as a child at Valmondois, a village on the Oise to the north-west of Paris. Daubigny was the son of an artist, and most of his family were painters. He studied in Italy and painted for nearly two years ; he then returned to Paris, not to leave it again until, in 186o, he took a house at Auvers on the Oise. By 1837 Daubigny had become famous as a river and landscape painter, although he had been devoting himself as well to drawing in black-and-white, to etching, wood engraving and lithography. In 1855 his picture, "Lock at Optevoz," in the Louvre, was purchased by the State. He visited London more than once, and spent some time in Holland. He died in Paris on Feb. 19, 1878. Daubigny is chiefly preferred in his riverside pictures, of which he painted a great number, but although there are two landscapes by Daubigny in the Louvre, neither is a river view. They are for that reason not so typical as many of his smaller Oise and Seine pictures. Among his most ambitious canvases are : "Springtime" (1857), in the Louvre; "Borde de la Cure, Morvan" (1864) ; "Villerville sur Mer" (1864) ; "Moonlight" (1865) ; "Andresy sur Oise" (1868) ; and "Return of the Flock-Moonlight" (1878).
His followers and pupils included his son Karl (who painted so well that his works are occasionally mistaken for those of his father, though in few cases do they equal his father's mastery), Oudinot, Delpy and Damoye. The works of Daubigny are, like Corot's, to be found in many modern collections.
See Fred Henriet, C. Daubigny et son oeuvre (1878) ; Albert Wolff, La Capitale de fart: Ch. Francois Daubigny (1881); J. Claretie, Peintres et sculpteurs contemporains: Daubigny (1882) ; D. Croal Thomson, The Barbizon School of Painters (189o) ; J. W. Mollett, Daubigny (189o) .