Introducing: Barbizon School

The Barbizon School represents a pivotal chapter in French landscape painting that inspired the birth of Impressionism. Active during the middle decades of the 19th century, the movement took shape during the 1840s after a community of painters settled in the village of Barbizon, not far from the Forest of Fontainebleau. Chief amongst them were Théodore Rousseau, Charles-François Daubigny and Constant Troyon. Corot was also closely linked to the group, as was Millet after he moved to Barbizon in 1849. They were united by their frustration with the restrictive neoclassical conventions of their day, which promoted idealised History painting over naturalism and honest observation. They wanted to paint the landscape as a subject in its own right, rather than as merely a picturesque backdrop to some Classical allegory. They were influenced by the painterly Realism of English artists such as Constable and Bonington, as well as an earlier tradition of Dutch landscape painting. The Barbizon painters attempted to capture effects of light and atmosphere faithfully by executing outdoor studies direct from nature. By painting ‘en plein air’ with loose, expressive brush strokes, they created the template that [Impressionist] painters like Monet, Renoir and Sisley would later follow.