The Fisherman (Le Pêcheur)
c. 1840–45
Medium
pen and brown ink and brush, gray and black wash (scratched away in places), with touches of pink watercolor
Dimensions
sheet: 20.9 × 28 cm · secondary support: 20.9 × 28 cm
Classification
Drawing
Department
Drawings
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
John L. Severance Fund
Accession Number
1980.18
Tags
About this artwork
The quintessential Barbizon artist, Rousseau was romantically in love with nature. He spent the better part of twenty years living in near poverty in a cottage in the village of Barbizon, painting in a converted barn. The Fisherman is an early drawing by the artist, probably executed on the outskirts of Paris. The tree, the foreground grasses and rocks, and the humble form of the fisherman at rest are rendered with great specificity. Rousseau thought of each tree in the Forest of Fontainebleau a...