Théodore Rousseau

Théodore Rousseau was a French painter and leading figure of the Barbizon School. Having initially trained in the conventional academic style of his day, from around 1829 Rousseau began to sketch outdoors near the woods of Fontainebleau. Drawing inspiration from British landscape artists such as Constable, he helped pioneer the ‘en plein air’ technique of painting direct from nature. In 1848, he moved permanently to the village of Barbizon, where a community of like-minded artists had congregated. His paintings combined evocative motifs with a dogged naturalism, but were regularly turned down by the official French Salon, leading to his nickname of ‘le grand refusé’. Following the Revolution of 1848, he enjoyed greater official recognition and eventually received the title of Officer of the Légion d’Honneur. His work, along with the wider Barbizon School, elevated the entire genre of landscape painting and profoundly influenced a later generation of French Impressionists.