More than 100 years ago, high above the banks of the Seine River in Rolleboise, France, Daniel Ridgway Knight set up his easel to paint working women in the fields, vineyards, and gardens surrounding the beautiful valley.
Today, if you were to sit and have lunch at the restaurant of Hotel Domain de la Corniche, you would be overlooking the same stretch of river depicted in several of Ridgway Knight’s paintings.
Hotel Domain de la Corniche
Born in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania in 1839, Knight trained in Paris under Gleyre at the École des Beaux-Arts. Gleyre taught a number of prominent artists, including Monet, Renoir, Sisley and Whistler.
After some years working under Meissonier, a painter of immensely detailed Napoleonic military scenes, Knight bought a house and studio in Poissy on the Seine.
Winning several awards at the Paris Salon, the Exposition Universelle, 1889, and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Daniel Ridway Knight is best remembered for his soulful depictions of women going about their daily work in and around the Seine River valley—sometimes stopping to talk, to rest, and to dream.
A Garden above the Seine, Rolleboise by Daniel Ridgway Knight
A Field of Flowers by Daniel Ridgway Knight
Women Washing Clothes by a Stream by Daniel Ridgway Knight, 1898
Watering the Garden by Daniel Ridgway Knight, 1912
Two Women Fishing by Daniel Ridgway Knight
Three Women in a Landscape by Daniel Ridgway Knight, 1881
The Siesta by Daniel Ridgway Knight – 1882
The Sewing Circle by Daniel Ridgway Knight
The Seine at Vernon by Daniel Ridgway Knight
The Rose Garden by Daniel Ridgway Knight
The Meeting by Daniel Ridgway Knight, c. 1888
The Honeymoon Breakfast by Daniel Ridgway Knight
The Flower Boat by Daniel Ridgway Knight
The Grape Harvest by Daniel Ridgway Knight. Image courtesy of Rehs Galleries, Inc., NYC
The Dancing Lesson by Daniel Ridgway Knight
Madeleine in a wheat field by Daniel Ridgway Knight. Image courtesy of Rehs Galleries, Inc., NYC
The Conversation by Daniel Ridgway Knight
Spring Blossoms by Daniel Ridgway Knight. Image courtesy of Rehs Galleries, Inc., NYC
Reverie by Daniel Ridgway Knight, 1866
Picking Flowers by Daniel Ridgway Knight
On the Terrace by Daniel Ridgway Knight
Mending by Daniel Ridgway Knight
Julia on the Terrace by Daniel Ridgway Knight, 1909
In the garden by Daniel Ridgway Knight, 1898
In Her Garden by Daniel Ridgway Knight
Hailing the Ferry by Daniel Ridgway Knight, 1888
Girl by a Stream, Flanders by Daniel Ridgway Knight, 1890
Flower Girls by Daniel Ridgway Knight
Fishing by Daniel Ridgway Knight
Fishing by Daniel Ridgway Knight
Far Away Thoughts by Daniel Ridgway Knight
Daydreaming by Daniel Ridgway Knight
Daydreaming by Daniel Ridgway Knight
Contemplation by Daniel Ridgway Knight
Confidence by Daniel Ridgway Knight – circa 1899
Coffee in the Garden by Daniel Ridgway Knight
Chrysanthemums by Daniel Ridgway Knight, 1898. Image courtesy of Rehs Galleries, Inc., NYC
Brittany Girl Overlooking Stream by Daniel Ridgway Knight
Breakfast in the Fields by Daniel Ridgway Knight, 1884. Image courtesy of Rehs Galleries, Inc., NYC
