Dreams of Elsewhere

Perspectives from The Artist's Road

The Painter Jules Le Coeur and His Dogs
in the Forest of Fontainebleau
1866 Pierre Auguste Renoir

Culture often depicts painters as solitary figures, working in the seclusion of their studio garrets. Solitary as the processes of art-making may be, artists have often come together to form colonies, sometimes in the pursuit and exploration of a particularly interesting landscape to paint, sometimes to follow in the footsteps of a well-known painter or teacher.

The Barbizon School of painters was an art colony named for the small village southeast of Paris from which it based. Located near the 97 square mile Forest of Fontainebleau, Barbizon became a favorite painting location for realist artists working directly from nature during the period from about 1830 through 1870. A few of the most notable artists associated with the Barbizon School include Théodore Rousseau, Charles…