Barbizon

On the drive out to Fountainbleau I noticed signs for a village called Barbizon. To tell you the truth I've never heard of the city but the signs were done in the shape of a stylized paint brush which intrigued me... I asked my driver what this was all about and he told me it was the home of a famous Art School dating from 1830 and still a destination for art enthusiasts to this day because there is a museum dedicated to famous artists of the area over time. I love these types of places so we allocated an hour to visit it on our way home from Fountainbleau. This was one of the reasons I was a bit pressed for time at the Palace.

Barbizon is about 35 miles southeast of Paris. Tucked on the edge of Fontainebleau Forest. The village was visited and beloved by many of the 19th century artists whose landscapes hang in gilt frames on the walls of the Musée d'Orsay which is the museum I favour in Paris over even the Louvre.

I can't draw a stick figure but wanted to visit a place where those with actual artistic talent took their easels and palettes with them. Paint in tubes, introduced in 1834, and the completion of a railway line to the area in 1849 facilitated excursions by the first generation of Fontainebleau artists to discover that the best way to paint the landscape was to actually go outdoors. A novel idea ... eah!

Well it seems obvious to us now but was a revolutionary idea in 1820 when magnificently stultifying paintings with historical and mythological themes, executed in studios, held sway at the Paris Salons and landscape painting was little more than wallpaper.

Jean-Francois Millet, Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot and Théodore Rousseau were the nucleus of an artistic movement that lasted from about 1830 to 1860, variously known as the En Plein Air and the Barbizon School founded in 1830. All have very famous paintings now hanging at the Musée d'Orsay. 

In the village of Barbizon, they revived the art of landscape painting, paving the way for the Impressionists who arrived in the forest 30 years later.

I was a bit rushed and most shops were closed on a Monday but this was well worth the stop. There was a number of sculptures dotting the city which I captured with my lens but I could have used more time. I also wish I collected paintings and understood more about art ... if I did I'd be sending some paintings home to hang in my own studio. Alas I have enough vices to not start another.

I took a picture (the first painting below) of a painting reproduced as a mosaic and just hanging outside an old broken down home in this village. I recognized it and asked my driver if he knew this painting and he informed me it is featured on the 'billet' to get into the Musée d'Orsay. It was painted by Millet. It is of two peasants praying in a potato field and is one of the most famous paintings at the Louvre. Even I can remember the odd painting here and there.

Life is good ... enjoy

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