Article: The Barbizon School in Painting

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The Barbizon School in Painting

Ambitious painters of the 1830s went to Rome. A few went 35 miles from Paris, to the Forest of Fontainebleau, and stayed.

The village at the edge of the forest gave them their name.

A screen of tall trees above a river, a cow at the water and a small figure in red, in a gilt frame

The trees A screen of trees holds the light out. Two notes of red below. River Landscape with a Cow, French School, 1800s

A tree in white blossom before a thatched farm, hens feeding in the grass, signed Péraire

The blossom All the weight of the paint in the flowering branches. Blossoming Tree and Farmyard, Paul Péraire

A bank of rose and violet heather running back to a line of trees, signed Desvarreux

The heath Rose and violet heather, open all the way to the trees. Heather in Bloom, James Desvarreux-Larpenteur

The Barbizon School was a circle of French landscape painters who, from about 1830 to 1870, painted directly from nature at the edge of the Forest of Fontainebleau.

Where Is Barbizon?

A village on the western edge of the Forest of Fontainebleau, south-east of Paris.

	BarbizonThe hamlet where the painters lodged
	35 miles by roadFrom Paris, south-east
	Forest of FontainebleauOaks, rocks, sand and heath
	The SeineBetween Paris and the forest, by Melun

Schematic map, north at the top.

How to Recognise a Barbizon Landscape Painting

Four things to look for.

1A low horizonThe sky takes half the picture or more.Girl with Turkeys, Emile Michel, 1872

2One treeOften an oak, anchoring one side.Haystacks in a Stubble Field, Adolphe-Félix Cals

3Small figures at workThey belong to the land and never take it over.Shepherd and Flock among Haystacks, Gaston Guignard

4Thin paintThe canvas shows through.Heather Path in Bloom, James Desvarreux-Larpenteur

Not Barbizon: no togas, no temples, no allegory.

How to Read a Barbizon Landscape

Look at how little paint it took.

Heather in Bloom, James Desvarreux-Larpenteur, oil on canvas, signed lower right

The flowering heather running back to the line of trees, the farm roof among them

Detail of the distance.The distanceThinHeather running back to a line of treesThe red roof of a farm among them

The heather bank at the right, worked in rose and violet against dark green

Detail of the bank.The bankColour on the grainRose and violet against dark greenThe weave still showing under the colour

Signature J. Desvarreux in black at the lower right of the canvas, among the heather

Detail of the signature.The nameSignedJ. Desvarreux, in blackLower right, among the heather

Not a cast shadow anywhere. Near heather and far heather differ only in temperature.

Barbizon or Impressionist, Reading the Palette

The colours tell the two apart before the subject does.

Barbizonthe actual color of a French forest, mostly muted

ochre

raw sienna

olive knocked down with brown

green-gray

umber in the shadows

cool gray-blue sky

Impressionistthirty years on, used at full strength

cobalt

pure green

chrome yellow

vermilion

violet in the shadows

Hold the two side by side and the palette shows before anything else does.

The Painters of the Barbizon School

One painter, one subject.

OaksThéodore Rousseau1812-1867

RiversCharles-François Daubigny1817-1878

UndergrowthNarcisse Diaz de la Peña1807-1876

SkiesJules Dupré1811-1889

CattleConstant Troyon1810-1865

SheepCharles Jacque1813-1894

Close to the school, not of it

Silver lightCamille Corot1796-1875

Peasants at workJean-François Millet1814-1875

Buying a Barbizon Landscape Painting

Is it a small panel? Oil on wood, often under fifteen inches, the ground showing. Usually an outdoor study, the object the school was built on.

Is it signed? Usually. The followers signed too. A signature places the canvas, it does not prove the circle.

Circle or follower? The working terms. What a collector meets is the wider school, painted in the same forest.

In the Barbizon tradition, for sale

Barbizon school river landscape with a cow, 19th century French oil, gilt carved frame

River Landscape with Cow, 1800s $2,700See the painting

Full view of the framed canvas, blossoming tree and thatched farm with hens, in its carved gilt swept frame

Paul Emmanuel PeraireBlossoming Tree and Farmyard $3,700See the painting

Signed Barbizon heather landscape by James Desvarreux, purple moor in bloom, carved silvered frame

James Desvarreux-LarpenteurHeather in Bloom $2,900See the painting

For sale

Barbizon School Paintings10 paintingsBrowse the collection

Keep reading More in The Landscape TraditionAnimated Landscapes, Figures in 19th-Century French Painting Related guidePastoral Scenes, Shepherds and Sheep in 19th-Century French Painting Related guideFrench Impressionist Landscape Painting Beyond the Famous Names Every guide, by subject

Original works, shipped free to the US and Canada, packed and tracked|Over 1,100 paintings sold since 2017

Photographs and descriptions of the paintings in our collection by GalerieClub Fine Art.