A Tree in Fontainebleau Forest
Pierre-Etienne-Théodore Rousseau
1844
oil
From the collection of Victoria and Albert Museum
Pierre-Etienne-Théodore Rousseau
1844
oil
From the collection of Victoria and Albert Museum
A Tree in Fontainebleau Forest is a 1844 oil by Pierre-Etienne-Théodore Rousseau, a Barbizon school work, held at Victoria and Albert Museum.
This painting shows a lone oak tree rising from a dark forest floor. Slender branches twist against a moody sky. Sunlight barely breaks through the thick canopy. Rousseau often painted real spots in Fontainebleau Forest. He joined a group called the Barbizon School. They liked showing nature as it really looked. Check out Rousseau’s smaller study of this tree at the Victoria and Albert Museum.
A large oak tree with foliage rendered in burnt ochre dominates the foreground of the painting, while a hilly landscape unfolds beneath a cloudy sky in the background. The work was likely created *en plein-air* directly in the forest of Fontainebleau, a practice typical of the Barbizon School, of which Rousseau was a leading figure. Executed initially on paper and later transferred to canvas, the painting exemplifies Rousseau’s focused attention to trees, a recurring subject in his oeuvre. The composition reflects the Barbizon painters’ approach, emphasizing direct observation of nature in…
Read the full account in the museum source.
French landscape painter of the 1820s–1850s, Rousseau built mood from weather and woodland.
See the richer artist page
