Woodland Scene with a River 

Frits Thaulow painted this woodland scene with oil on canvas sometime in the late 19th century. Thaulow was Norwegian, but he spent much of his career in France, absorbing the aesthetic of Impressionism, yet retaining a Scandinavian sensibility. The image creates meaning through an informal naturalism that departs from the conventions of academic painting. We can see this in the artist's focus on the effects of light on water, and on the rough textures of foliage. Thaulow was part of a generation of artists that established landscape painting as a distinctly modern genre. In doing so, he helped consolidate the social value of the museum as a place where people could go to contemplate nature and escape the pressures of urban life. Art historians use a variety of resources to understand art in its full context. These include artist's letters, exhibition reviews, and the writings of art critics. Careful attention to these sources shows how even a seemingly apolitical painting is embedded in a specific time and place.