Tower Under Construction on the Banks of a River
Fernand Cormon, famous for teaching art rebels like Van Gogh and Toulouse-Lautrec, here captures a moment of heavy industry with loose, energetic strokes. A massive cylindrical tower, wrapped in a cage of wooden scaffolding, rises dramatically from the riverbank, dwarfing the small boat floating in the foreground. The sketchy lines suggest the bustling noise of construction, while the ruins of arches to the right hint at a landscape caught between the old world and the new. It's a fascinating glimpse into 19th-century modernization, drawn by a master of the academic style who usually preferred historical epics.
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