Art Institute of Chicago

The Marsh

Constant Troyon (French, 1810–1865)

Date

1840

Medium

Oil on canvas

Culture

France

Department

Painting and Sculpture of Europe

Institution

Art Institute of Chicago

Small figures of washerwomen cleaning their clothing in a marsh and laying them out to dry animate this bucolic landscape, along with a few animals. As a member of the Barbizon School—an artistic group that often worked in Fontainebleau, a forest outside Paris—Constant Troyon was interested in scenes of everyday rural life that emphasized nature’s inherent drama. He was known for his depictions of sky, which capture atmosphere and light through a free, painterly technique that later inspired the Impressionists, including Claude Monet .

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