Background

Théodore Rousseau was born on April 15, 1812 in Paris, France. He was a son of a tailor.

Education

Around the age of 14, Rousseau made a journey to the mountainous Jura region of France and was so inspired by the landscape, that he took up painting. His parents had planned for him to study civil engineering at the École Polytechnique, when he finished school. However, Théodore's interest in art was so strong, that they agreed to send him to train with the landscape artist Alexandre Pau de St-Martin, who was a cousin of Rousseau's mother.

After studying in St-Martin's studio, Rousseau received further training from the artists Joseph Rémond and Guillaume Lethière. However, he found their styles too tradition-bound. At that time, Rousseau began to paint outdoors in the Parisian suburbs as much as possible, rather than working in the studio. He was also influenced by the naturalist style of Dutch and Flemish landscape painters of the seventeenth century, and by the work of nineteenth-century British artist John Constable, who was known for his views of the English countryside.

Career

In 1831, Théodore started to exhibit regularly at the Salon in Paris. In 1833, he visited the Fontainebleau area for the first time, and in the following decade, Rousseau settled down in the village of Barbizon, where he worked with a group of landscape painters, including Jean-François Millet, Jules Dupré, Narcisse-Virgile Diaz de La Peña and Charles-François Daubigny. The painters had similar artistic goals and some time later, they became known as the Barbizon school. Also, at that time, Théodore created tranquil pastorals, such as "Under the Birches, Evening", reflecting the influence of Constable.

In 1836, his work, entitled "Descent of the Cattle", was rejected by the jury of the Salon, as were all his entries during the next seven years. But despite all these failures, Rousseau's reputation continued to grow. Also, in the 1830's, the painter established himself with a series of boldly painted and dramatic scenes from the Auvergne. Among the pictures, which were done in northern France, the "Forest of Fontainebleau, Bas-Bréau" is especially characteristic. The work "Valley of Tiffauge" is another outstanding illustration of an almost Flemish type of visual analysis.

Made controversial by his nonclassical bias, Rousseau was not able to exhibit at the Salon between 1837 and 1847. After the Revolution of 1848, the Salon briefly relaxed its standards, and Théodore finally received official recognition as a major figure in French landscape painting. By mid-century, Rousseau became an unofficial leader of the group of artists, called the Barbizon school, who shared his Romantic artistic ideals of emotion and spontaneity.

At the Exposition Universelle of 1853, where all Rousseau's rejected pictures of the previous twenty years were gathered together, his works were acknowledged to form one of the best of the many splendid groups there exhibited. But, after an unsuccessful sale of his works by auction in 1861, he contemplated leaving Paris for Amsterdam or London, or even New York City.

In 1863, when the painter visited the Alps, making sketches of Mont Blanc, he became dangerously ill with inflammation of the lungs, and when he returned to Barbizon, he suffered from insomnia and became gradually weakened. Some time later, in 1867, shortly before his death, Théodore was appointed a president of the fine-art jury for International Exposition of 1867.

Achievements

• Théodore Rousseau gained prominence as a prolific landscape painter, as well as a leader of the Barbizon school. His most famous works include "Under the Birches, Evening", "Hoarfrost", "Edge of the Forest of Fontainebleau, Sunset", "The Little Fisherman", "The Oaks of Apremont" and others.
  
  In 1852, the painter was made the Knight of the National Order of the Legion of Honour. Shortly before his death on 20 December 1867, Rousseau was honoured with the title of the Officer of the same order.
  
  Today, his works are kept in the collections of different museums and galleries, including the Louvre Museum in Paris, the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg and others.

Works

More photos

• painting

  • View of mountains, Auvergne

  • Fall at the Jean-du-Paris, in the Forest of Fontainebleau

  • Clearing in the high forest of Fontainebleau forest X, said the cart

  • The End of Autumn

  • Twilight in Sologne

  • A View of Thiers in the Auvergne

  • Cows in the mare

  • Mont Saint-Michel

  • Meadows crossed by a river

  • A town Thiers

  • Landscape in Auvergne (near Puy)

  • Mountain landscape near Fontainebleau

  • Exit drill Fontainebleau, sunset

  • Town in Auvergne

  • The board of Bellecroix

  • The Saleve Cliffs near Geneva

  • Valley in the Auvergne

  • Landscape with poplars

  • House near a pond in Auvergne

  • Landscape

  • Cows Returning from the Mountainside

  • Hilly landscape, Auvergne

  • The avenue of chestnut trees

  • Riverside

  • Marshland in Les Landes

  • Forest landscape Sun

  • Glade of the Reine Blanche in the Fontainebleau Forest

  • The collier's hut

  • The pond at the foot of the hill

  • Seascape

  • Landscape in Auvergne

  • Sunset in the forest

  • Last houses of Port en Bessin (Calvados)

  • The valley of Bièvre near Paris

  • The oak tree crashed into the forest of Fontainebleau

  • Sunset at Arbonne

  • A stream with dam in Auvergne

  • Alley chestnut from the castle Shoes

  • The Large Oak Tree, Forest of Fontainebleau

  • The pond

  • Landscape at Vigerie, valley Santoire, Auvergne

  • Plain in front of the Pyrenees

  • Edge of the Forest, Sun Setting

  • Morning

  • Village in valley

  • The hill

  • Landscape in the Auvergne

  • Banks of Loire

  • Holm Oaks, Apremont

  • The Jetty at the Port of Granville

  • The pond near the road

  • Normandy farms

  • Village entrance

  • Marsh Land

  • Landscape Study

  • Market in the Normandy

  • Mills of Thiers

  • Side of the Valley of Saint-Vincent (Auvergne)

  • The Forest of Fontainebleau

  • The Cave in a Cliff near Granville

  • Landscape in the Auvergne

  • Sunset in the Auvergne

  • Landscape

  • Gateway

  • Mountain Stream in the Auvergne

  • Jean Baptiste de Nompère de Champagny

  • Panoramic landscape

  • Inside the forest grove at Vieux Dormoir du Bas-Bréau (Fontainebleau forest)

  • Landscape

  • Malhec rocks in the Valley of Saint-Vincent

  • A Hilly Landscape in Auvergne

  • Avenue, Forest Isle Adam

  • The Valley of Saint-Vincent

  • A waterfall in Thiers

  • Study of rocks

  • Village under the trees

  • The Pool with a Stormy Sky

  • The Oak in the Rocks

  • The Little Fisherman

  • Landscape with Farmland

  • Edge of river

  • Twilight Landscape

  • Fontainebleau

  • Cottages near pond

  • Look at Barbizon

  • Lande de la Glandee, Forest of Fontainebleau

  • The Seine at Villeneuve St. Georges

  • The campaign at sunrise

  • Road in the forest of Fontainebleau

  • Landscape

  • Plain

  • The Great Oaks of Old Bas-Breau

  • Water Mill, Thiers

  • Study in the forest of Fontainebleau

  • Valley in the Auvergne Mountains

  • Landscape of Jura Arbois

  • Edge of the Forest at Fontainebleau, Setting Sun

  • View of the plain of Montmartre X effect of storm

  • Panoramic Landscape on the Outskirts of Paris

  • Sunset

  • Stream in Auvergne near Royat

  • Solitude Park Chamagnieu

  • Rocky Landscape

  • Spring

  • Mountainous landscape in Cantal

  • Cottages in the Jura

  • The Marsh in the Souterraine

  • Mountain Landscape with fisherman

  • Church of Saint Lou d'Esserant in the Oise

  • Figures in a landscape

  • Inside the forest

  • View of the belfry of Orleans

  • Landscape

  • The pond, stormy sky

  • The vicinities of Saint Flour

  • Woman Carrying Wood

  • View of the Puy de Dôme and Royat

  • The passer

  • Mountain stream in Auvergne

  • Landscape with a church

  • Landscape in the Auvergne

• sketch

  • Boat near a shore lined with trees

  • Clumps of trees along a river

  • Sunset on a plain

  • View of Mountains Girard

  • Snowy path through a wood in the forest of Fontainebleau

  • Carrier bundles of wood on the edge

  • Lowland landscape

  • The plain of Barbizon

  • The avenue of chestnut trees

  • Landscape Sketch

  • A path in the forest

  • Rocky valley

  • Landscape

  • Flock of sheep in a pasture

  • Boat on a river lined with trees

  • Trees

  • The Forest in Winter

  • Long rock in the forest of Fontainebleau

  • Out of the forest of Fontainebleau

  • Landscape

Views

Quotations: "It is better in art to be honest, than clever."

Connections

mentor:

Alexandre Pau de St-Martin

mentor:

Joseph Rémond

mentor:

Guillaume Lethière

Friend:

Jules Dupré

Friend:

Jean-François Millet

Friend:

Narcisse-Virgile Diaz de La Peña

Friend:

Charles-François Daubigny

References

• Unruly Nature: The Landscapes of Théodore Rousseau Lavishly illustrated and thoroughly documented, this volume includes five essays by experts in the field. Scott Allan and Édouard Kopp alternately examine Rousseau’s diverse techniques and working procedures as a painter and as a draftsman, as well as his art’s mixed economic and critical fortunes on the art market and at the Salon.
  2016
• Theodore Rousseau This book contains 102 paintings and drawings of Théodore Rousseau.
  2015
• Theodore Rousseau: Selections from His Writings
  2013
• Theodore Rousseau's Universe
  1976