From 1853, painters of the Barbizon School continued to innovate. Then in 1865, the young Alfred Sisley and Auguste Renoir came to paint there.
Troyon
When Constable’s ‘Hay Wain’ won a gold medal at the Paris Salon in 1824, it inspired the foundation of the Barbizon School, and led to Impressionism.
From Troyon’s farm animals going to market, through Queen Victoria’s favourite artist, African elephants in the wild, to monkeys, and cattle in the sunshine.
More anglers caught with their rods and lines in paintings by Troyon, Corot, Hodler, Carl Larsson and a surprise catch from Tom Thomson.
Farmyards crowded with people and their animals, from Paulus Potter to some less well-known Impressionists such as Henri Rouart.
Bosch’s two wayfarers, Courbet’s Stone Breakers, and wonderful paintings by Brett, Troyon and Ford Madox Brown show those who lived on the road.
Loyal to their master or mistress, often to the point of self-sacrifice. Paintings by Titian, Rembrandt, Rubens, Velázquez, Courbet and Bonnard.
From being staffage in landscapes, shepherds and their flocks became motifs in their own right, with the social realist of Millet, even Henri Regnault.
Where land, sea, and sky meet. Sought-after and hugely popular in fine weather, the forces of nature are most obvious in storms. The cradle of Impressionism and more modern painting.
Initially a portrait and history painter, he co-founded the Barbizon School in the late 1840s, turning to evocative scenes of poor country people.