Jongkind developed an idiosyncratic style that was to bring him the admiration of Manet, Monet, Pissarro and Boudin.

A forerunner of the Impressionist school, he was born in Latrop in the Netherlands and spent time in Vlaardingen and Massluis where he was often to be found drawing.

He initially studied under the landscape painter Andreas Schelfhout at the Academy of Art in The Hague. His studies continued in Paris where fellow pupils included Couture, Rousseau and Boudin. Here he was taught by Eugène Isabey. Isabey recognised Jongkind’s talent for seascapes and took him on a tour of Normandy and Brittany in 1850.

On his return to Holland in 1855, Jongkind experienced five years of hardship, only relieved by sales of his works in Paris in 1860. He returned to Paris in the same year and had commercial successful from this point on. Madame Fesser, his loyal companion, and he went on numerous trips to the coast where he was inspired to paint ship and port subjects that were often exhibited in the Salon and with which he acquired great popularity.

He finally settled in La Côte Saint André, near Grenoble, where he lived in a house bought by Mme Fesser’s son.

Here is a scene of a quay that runs along the Seine in the middle of the 19th century. Jongkind speaks to us of the peaceful surroundings of this day; he speaks also to us with a remarkable precision of the still waters; the sky reflects there like a crystal mirror. Jongkind’s painting makes us understand how people might have enjoyed the calm noise of life between the city and the water.