The Edge of the Woods at Monts-Girard, Fontainebleau Forest
1852–54
Medium
Oil on wood
Dimensions
31 1/2 x 48 in. (80 x 121.9 cm)
Classification
Paintings
Department
European Paintings
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Catharine Lorillard Wolfe Collection, Wolfe Fund, 1896
Accession Number
96.27
Tags
Art Historical Context
Step into the lush embrace of Fontainebleau Forest with Théodore Rousseau's *The Edge of the Woods Monts-Girard, Fontainebleau Forest*1852–54), a masterful oil on wood that captures the wild beauty of this iconic French woodland. As a leading figure of the Barbizon school, rejected the polished idealism of academic art, instead embracing plein-air realism to depict nature's untamed vitality. Painted during his most productive years near the forest he adored, this panoramic landscape (31½ × 48 inches) draws viewers to the forest's shadowy fringe, where sunlight pierces dense foliage and underbr...
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...