Théodore Rousseau

Pierre Etienne Théodore Rousseau ( born April 15, 1812 in Paris, † December 22, 1867 in Barbizon ) was a French landscape painter and brother of the less -known painter Philippe Rousseau. He was the founder of the Barbizon school in which together found the first plein air painters. His work is attributable to the realism.

Life

His first art lessons he learned from his cousin, the painter Alexandre Pau de Saint -Martin. At fifteen, the landscape painter Jean Charles Remond took him for two years as a student. In 1828 he joined the studio of the history painter Guillaume Guillon - Lethière and remained there until the end in 1829.

The following study undertaken it travels through the Auvergne and Normandy were reflected in the themes of his works.

In 1831, the then 19 -year-old Rousseau handed a first time a painting for the Paris Salon. This representation of a wild natural landscape of the Auvergne was recognized due to the lively style of painting. As it were denied further success in the following four exhibitions of the Salon, he exhibited until 1849 no longer made ​​public.

Rousseau established the genre of " Paysage intimate " which borrowed the motives to their pictures especially the forest of Fontainebleau. 1832/33 he painted for the first time there in the great outdoors, plein air. The winter months of 1836/37 he spent together with the painters Narcisso Virgilio Diaz de la Peña and Théodore Caruelle d' Aligny in Barbizon. Impressed by the scenery Rousseau returned there every year back and finally settled in 1848 with his wife down there.

Over time, colleagues gathered around him, who wanted to paint it the same nature in nature. This created over time, the Barbizon school.

Théodore Rousseau died in 1867 at the age of 55 years at Barbizon. He is buried in the cemetery of Chailly -en- Bière next to his friend, the painter Jean -François Millet.

Awards and honors

Work

Rousseau sought after in great detail, accurate representation of the landscape and tried to capture their mood. Due to the sharpness of his observation and its realistic depiction Rousseau revolutionized the French landscape painting, but was not recognized by his contemporaries.

In the coloristic treatment often fleeting and sketchy, in recent times, however, too detailed and therefore less fresh, practicing his landscapes but always a deep poetic charm.

Selections

Stormy atmosphere in the plain of Montmartre to 1845/48, 24 x 36 cm, Paris, Musée d' Orsay

Sunset at Arbonne to 1845/1846, oil on canvas, 64 x 99 cm New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art

The small fishermen (French Le petit pecheur ) to 1848/49, oil on canvas, 20.6 x 30.5 cm Paris, Musee du Louvre

View of Barbizon, circa 1850, oil on canvas, 24 x 32 cm, Moscow, Pushkin Museum

The Oaks Of Apremont, 1852, oil on canvas, 63.5 x 99.5 cm Paris, Musee du Louvre

• To 1848/49: Output from the forest of Fontainebleau, Sunset (French Sortie de forêt à Fontainebleau, soleil couchant ), oil on canvas, 142 x 197.5 cm, Louvre, Paris
• 1849: An Avenue, Forest of Isle- Adam (French Une avenue, forêt de l' Isle- Adam ), 101 x 82 cm Paris, Musée d' Orsay
• 1853: A swamp in the country (in French Un Marais dans les Landes), 63 cm x 97 cm, Louvre, Paris
• To 1850/60: Search brushwood in the forest of Fontainebleau, oil on canvas, 54.6 x 65.4 cm Boston, Museum of Fine Arts