Forest of Fontainebleau

Artist Narcisse-Virgile Diaz de la Peña (French, 1808-1876)

Place of OriginFrance

Date1858

DimensionsPainting (H x W): 19 7/8 × 29 in. (50.5 × 73.7 cm)
Frame (H x W x D): 27 1/2 × 36 3/8 × 2 5/8 in. (69.9 × 92.4 × 6.7 cm)

Mediumoil on wood panel

ClassificationPaintings

Credit LineGift of Arthur J. Secor

Object number

1922.27

On View

Toledo Museum of Art (2445 Monroe Street), Gallery, 33

Label TextThe Forest of Fontainebleau, southeast of Paris, was a frequent source of inspiration for artist Narcisse-Virgile Diaz de la Peña, who painted the subject multiple times throughout his career. A great admirer of Théodore Rousseau (see his Under the Birches, Evening in these galleries), Diaz joined Rousseau as part of the Barbizon school—a loosely associated group of landscape painters based in the village of Barbizon near the Forest of Fontainebleau. Diaz was known for his facility with color and his exploration of light and its effects in nature, proving inspirational for Impressionist artists such as Renoir and Monet. The composition immerses us in the dense, sun-dappled forest, with a glimpse through the center to blue sky beyond. A seated peasant woman rests under the canopy, seeming almost as much a part of the forest as the rocks and lush foliage. Diaz’s dabs of pure pigment, his heavy application of paint, and his careful use of oil glazes create a lustrous surface.Published ReferencesToledo Museum of Art Museum News, no. 41, April 1922, repr.

Godwin, Blake-More, Catalogue of European Paintings, Toledo, 1939, p. 188, repr. 189.

Davidson, Marshall B., The Horizon Book of Great Historic Places of Europe, New York, 1974, repr. (col.) p. 187.

Toledo Museum of Art, The Toledo Museum of Art, European Paintings, Toledo, 1976, pp. 54-55.

Schama, Simon, Landscape and Memory, New York, 1995, p. 546, fig. 43 (opp. p. 530, col.).

Eitner, Lorenz, French Paintings of the Nineteenth Century, Part I: Before Impressionism, Washington, 2000, p. 241, n. 3.

Renoir Landscapes, 1865-1883 London, National Gallery, 2006, p. 26, fig. 12 (col.).

Exhibition HistoryColumbus (OH) Gallery of Fine Arts, Relationships Between French Literature and Painting in the Nineteenth Century, 1938, no. 5.

Saginaw, MI, Saginaw Museum, Masters of the Barbizon School, 1951.

San Francisco, California Palace or the Legion of the Honor, 1962.

Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, Barbizon Revisited, 1963, no. 41, p. 126, repr.

Cleveland, Cleveland Museum of Art, 1963.

Lyon, Musée des Beaux-Arts, L'Ecole de Barbizon: peindre en plein air avant l'impressionisme, 2002, no. 44, pp. 201, 287, repr. p. 205 (col.).