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 KnightA Field of Flowers by Daniel Ridgway KnightWomen Washing Clothes by a Stream by Daniel Ridgway Knight, 1898Watering the Garden by Daniel Ridgway Knight, 1912Two Women Fishing by Daniel Ridgway KnightThree Women in a Landscape by Daniel Ridgway Knight, 1881The Siesta by Daniel Ridgway Knight - 1882The Sewing Circle by Daniel Ridgway KnightThe Seine at Vernon by Daniel Ridgway KnightThe Rose Garden by Daniel Ridgway KnightThe Meeting by Daniel Ridgway Knight, c. 1888The Honeymoon Breakfast by Daniel Ridgway KnightThe Flower Boat by Daniel Ridgway KnightThe Grape Harvest by Daniel Ridgway Knight. Image courtesy of Rehs Galleries, Inc., NYCThe Dancing Lesson by Daniel Ridgway KnightMadeleine in a wheat field by Daniel Ridgway Knight. Image courtesy of Rehs Galleries, Inc., NYCThe Conversation by Daniel Ridgway KnightSpring Blossoms by Daniel Ridgway Knight. Image courtesy of Rehs Galleries, Inc., NYCReverie by Daniel Ridgway Knight, 1866Picking Flowers by Daniel Ridgway KnightOn the Terrace by Daniel Ridgway KnightMending by Daniel Ridgway KnightJulia on the Terrace by Daniel Ridgway Knight, 1909In the garden by Daniel Ridgway Knight, 1898In Her Garden by Daniel Ridgway KnightHailing the Ferry by Daniel Ridgway Knight, 1888Girl by a Stream, Flanders by Daniel Ridgway Knight, 1890Flower Girls by Daniel Ridgway KnightFishing by Daniel Ridgway KnightFishing by Daniel Ridgway KnightFar Away Thoughts by Daniel Ridgway KnightDaydreaming by Daniel Ridgway KnightDaydreaming by Daniel Ridgway KnightContemplation by Daniel Ridgway KnightConfidence by Daniel Ridgway Knight - circa 1899Coffee in the Garden by Daniel Ridgway KnightChrysanthemums by Daniel Ridgway Knight, 1898. Image courtesy of Rehs Galleries, Inc., NYCBrittany Girl Overlooking Stream by Daniel Ridgway KnightBreakfast in the Fields by Daniel Ridgway Knight, 1884. Image courtesy of Rehs Galleries, Inc., NYCAutumn Evening by Daniel Ridgway KnightA Pensive Moment by Daniel Ridgway Knight
