Art Institute of Chicago

In the Forest of Fontainbleau

Théodore Rousseau

Date

c. 1850

Medium

Charcoal, with stumping and black pastel, heightened with touches of white chalk, on dark tan wove paper, laid down on tan wood pulp board

Culture

France

Department

Prints and Drawings

Institution

Art Institute of Chicago

The forest at Fontainebleau was a favorite subject of Barbizon artists, who were by its beauty and its proximity to Paris. Rousseau, a premier Barbizon painter, was attacked by critics in the 1830s and 1840s for his humble farm and forest scenes, which they considered to be "vulgar." The two figures in this landscape may be Rousseau himself and the adopted daughter of George Sand; the two were engaged in 1845.

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