The Seine at Paris
by WESTERHOLM, Victor Axel, Oil on canvas, 61 x 82 cm
Westerholm painted the present picture in spring 1888, during his first sojourn in France. The cloudy sky, the river diagonally crossing the canvas, and the tree that anchors the composition, were all in line with classic landscape art. But the picture also betrays a modern eye. The three factory chimneys positioned as counterpoints to the tree, and the iron bridge marking the divide between water and sky, document the advance of modern civilization.