Glade of the Reine Blanche in the Fontainebleau Forest 1860

Editor: This is Théodore Rousseau's "Glade of the Reine Blanche in the Fontainebleau Forest," an oil painting from 1860. It has this incredible sense of light and shadow playing across the forest floor. The path leading into the distance makes me wonder about who used it, and what it was used for. What do you see when you look at it? Curator: I see Rousseau wrestling with the changing role of landscape painting during a period of immense social upheaval. On one hand, it is realism that embraces the natural world through meticulous depictions, while on the other, it almost vibrates with Romanticism. The French forests were not just geographic locations; they became powerful symbols of national identity during the rise of industrialization and urbanization. What role does preserving landscapes play? Editor: That's a really interesting point. I never considered how a forest could be viewed as a statement about national identity during that period. Is that why he and the other Barbizon school artists chose to paint en plein air, directly in the landscape, rather than in a studio? Curator: Precisely! Painting outdoors allowed them to capture fleeting atmospheric effects but also to directly engage with the locations they sought to represent as both unspoiled and innately French. This can be contrasted against contemporaneous depictions of an agrarian idyll, idealized rural places that were increasingly fictional. Rousseau, although, through subtle techniques such as tenebrism is more truthful and honest to what he actually witnesses, despite whatever emotional sentiments the landscape can evoke. Can landscape painting ever really be 'realist' I wonder? Editor: It’s fascinating how painting could capture something of French sentimentality within natural forms. I'll have to explore those ideas more. Curator: It encourages us to consider the relationship between artistic movements and the historical context that shaped them, which really is the point of any work of art.