Theodore Rousseau. The Voice of the Forest. 1812 - 1867.
Paris Museums| N° d'inventaire | 30822 |
| Format | 22 X 28 |
| Détails | 204 p., numerous color illustrations, paperback. |
| Publication | Paris, 2024 |
| Etat | Nine |
| ISBN | 9782759605743 |
Exhibition catalog. Petit Palais, Museum of Fine Arts of the City of Paris
from March 5 to July 7, 2024.
A generation before the Impressionist painters, Théodore Rousseau (Paris, 1812-Barbizon, 1867) was a sensitive and committed witness to the changing relationship between man and nature, in a century marked by scientific discoveries, the industrial revolution, and rural exodus. The artist found his inspiration in the open air and traveled through Normandy, Vendée, Auvergne, Berry, the Alps, Landes, the Pyrenees, and the Jura. But his main source of inspiration was very close to Paris, in the forest of Fontainebleau. This offered him a wide variety of models—trees, undergrowth, rocks, clearings—which he observed, solitarily, for long hours, making sketches on the spot before creating his final works in his studio. He tirelessly sought to restore on his canvas the harmony he experienced in nature, studying trees and forests, air and light. Théodore Rousseau challenged the hierarchies previously established in the landscape genre, blurring the boundaries between painting and drawing, between sketch and finished work. Driven by his unconditional love of life, the man who said he heard the voice of the trees would be one of the first to raise his own voice to warn of the fragility of this environment.
Exhibition catalog. Petit Palais, Museum of Fine Arts of the City of Paris
from March 5 to July 7, 2024.
A generation before the Impressionist painters, Théodore Rousseau (Paris, 1812-Barbizon, 1867) was a sensitive and committed witness to the changing relationship between man and nature, in a century marked by scientific discoveries, the industrial revolution, and rural exodus. The artist found his inspiration in the open air and traveled through Normandy, Vendée, Auvergne, Berry, the Alps, Landes, the Pyrenees, and the Jura. But his main source of inspiration was very close to Paris, in the forest of Fontainebleau. This offered him a wide variety of models—trees, undergrowth, rocks, clearings—which he observed, solitarily, for long hours, making sketches on the spot before creating his final works in his studio. He tirelessly sought to restore on his canvas the harmony he experienced in nature, studying trees and forests, air and light. Théodore Rousseau challenged the hierarchies previously established in the landscape genre, blurring the boundaries between painting and drawing, between sketch and finished work. Driven by his unconditional love of life, the man who said he heard the voice of the trees would be one of the first to raise his own voice to warn of the fragility of this environment.