Barbizon “Nature in the field”

» Do you know Barbizon near Fontainebleau ?

    In days gone by, it was a simple wood cutters’ village. But when Corot, Rousseau and Diaz de la Pena passed through there, it became, between 1830 and 1870, the setting for a revolution which was to change the course of modern Painting.
They were nicknamed the “colourists”, the “landscape painters”. They came on foot from Chailly to Barbizon, where they were welcomed at the Ganne Inn, a place which had become a rallying point.
Everything there was a delight to them: the play of the light in the undergrowth, the dark shades of the high forest, the lakes, the stormy skies, nature’s variations according to the season or time of day... Their easels on their backs, they abandoned their studios and set off into the plains and forests to “capture nature in the field”.

 

 

    Today, Barbizon, which was their “green capital”, has retained its country charm, with its smart ivy-covered stone houses, its rose gardens… and remains the “painters’ village” of all painters!

 

 

 

 

 

    To visit :

• Ganne and Rousseau Museums
• Millet Museum
• Artists’ galleries and studios