The Barbizon School and the Origins of Impressionism - Softcover

Adams, Steven

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0714836230 ISBN 13: 9780714836232

Publisher: Phaidon Press, 1997

Synopsis

The key painters associated with the Barbizon School - Corot, Millet, Rousseau and Courbet - are among the finest landscape artists of the nineteenth century. From their base at the village of Barbizon in the Forest of Fontainebleau, just outside Paris, they painted nature as they saw it, anticipating many of the techniques and effects of Impressionism. In this survey Steven Adams re-evaluates French landscape painting in the half-century before Impressionism, placing this 'return to nature' against the background of the rapid industrialization and political crises of the period.

About this title

Review:

'Every library and anyone interested in mid-nineteenth-century French cultural life should get it.' (Observer)

'A superb investigation of a long-overshadowed subject. Recommended for all collections.' (Library Journal)

Synopsis:

The artists of the Barbizon School were a group of landscape painters of the mid-19th century; they came to the village of Barbizon (just outside Paris) to paint from nature in the open air, far from the pressures of city life. Many of the feature that we associate with Impressionist painting - painting from life and impulsive brushwork amongst others - are also found in Barbizon works. Adams attempts to redress the historical balance and examines lanscape painting in the 50 years before the term "Impresioniste" was first heard in Paris. The work of Barbizon artists is set against the tumultuous political crises that overcame France during the first ahlf of the 19th century.

About this edition

• Publisher: Phaidon Press
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0714836230
• ISBN 13: 9780714836232
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 240