The real head of the Barbizon school was Théodore Rousseau (1812-1867),
who was one of the first exponents of the “romantic” as opposed to the
“classic” landscape. If Corot was the lyric, Rousseau was the epic
poet of Nature. In his early works he was considerably influenced
by Constable, but he failed for a long time to gain the approval of
the public and of the Salon juries. Fourteen times in succession his
pictures were refused admission to the Salon, and success only came to
him late in life. In 1851, at about the same time as Millet, he settled
at Barbizon, on the outskirts of the Forest of Fontainebleau, where
henceforth he found the subjects for his pictures. Rousseau was a most
conscientious artist, who “constructed a group of trees with the care
that an Academician puts into the construction of a nude figure.” His
love of accurate detail did not, however, make him lose sight of the
general effect. His insistence on bold silhouettes made him favour the
sunset hour when, as in his masterpiece, _An Opening in the Forest at
Fontainebleau_ (No. 827), the trees would form effective dark masses
against the glowing sunset sky. More characteristic of his favourite
manner of composition is the imposing group of oak trees in the middle
of a plain in the picture known as _Les Chênes_ (No. 2900). In this,
as in _Marais dans les Landes_ (No. 830), which was bought in 1881 for
£5160, and, indeed, in all the pictures where cattle are introduced,
it will be noticed that the animals form part and parcel of the
landscape, and are no longer individual “portraits” of animals, as they
were apt to be in the pictures by the earlier Dutch cattle-painters.
The same unity of vision is to be noted in all his sixteen pictures at
the Louvre.
[Illustration:
PLATE XLIX.—JEAN-BAPTISTE CAMILLE COROT
(1796-1875)