Barbizon School

During the 19th century, landscape painting went through a period of transformation as artists discovered the power of drawing directly from nature. The exhibition of John Constable’s works at the Paris Salon of 1824 helped further set the stage for this new method, inspiring many artists to venture outside of Paris to work in nature. Artists like Théodore Rousseau and Jean-François Millet, took on this method and together formed the Barbizon School of painters—a movement dedicated to painting nature through Realism. The name originated from the village of Barbizon, France, near the Forest of Fountainbleau, a dense and rich terrain where many of these painters drew their inspirations. Members of the Barbizon School were no longer focused on the idealized nature scene but immersed themselves in the unpredictable throws of nature to produce works that redefined landscape painting and transcended geography to an art.