Cliffs of Malbec at Mont-Dore, the Auvergne
ca. 1830
Medium
Graphite on laid paper
Dimensions
11-1/2 x 16-1/2 in. (29.2 x 41.9 cm)
Classification
Drawings
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of Alexander B.V. Johnson and Roberta J.M. Olson, in honor of Karen B. Cohen, 1999
Accession Number
1999.508.2
Tags
Art Historical Context
**Cliffs of Malbec at-Dore, the Auvergne** *ca. 1830, Graphite on laid paper, 11-1/2 x 16-1/2 in.* *Théodore Rousseau (French, 1812–1867), Metropolitan Museum of Art* Step into the wild beauty of France's Auvergne region with Théodore Rousseau's *Cliffs of Malbec Mont-Dore*. Created around 1830, this graphite captures the dramatic volcanic cliffs and rugged terrain of Mont-Dore, a site celebrated for its raw, untamed landscapes. Rousseau, a pioneering figure in the Barbizon School, sketched en plein air, emphasizing nature's unfiltered truth over idealized Romantic visions—a bold shift in...
About the Artist
Théodore Rousseau · 1812–1867
Théodore Rousseau (1812–1867) was a French landscape painter and the leading figure of the Barbizon School, the group of artists who settled in the village of Barbizon near the Forest of Fontainebleau to paint directly from nature. Born in Paris, he showed precocious talent and studied under the academic painters Charles Rémond and Guillaume Guillon-Lethière, but quickly rejected classical landsca...