Realism in France

Barbizon and the Open Air

Landscape painters around Fontainebleau and the Oise, 1830s–1860s

Beginning before Realism had a name, a group of landscape painters worked from close study in the forest near the village of Barbizon, south of Paris, and along the Oise to the north. They painted real French places, and their example opened the way for painting ordinary life.

• Corot's forest and a remembered lake
• Rousseau, Diaz and Daubigny: named places, real light
• A State-commissioned farm scene
• A photographer in the same woods

Works in this part

• Forest of Fontainebleau
• Souvenir of Mortefontaine
• Sunset from the Forest of Fontainebleau
• The Edge of the Forest at Les Monts-Girard, Fontainebleau
• Washerwomen at the Oise River near Valmondois
• Oxen Going to Work, Morning Effect
• Carrefour de l'Epine

Image: National Gallery of Art, Washington · Public domain (NGA Open Access)