Fontainebleau Forest

From Mattatuck Museum

William Hunt (created by)
Mattatuck Historical Soc (owned by)

circa 1855 (Date manufactured/created)

Oil

canvas, painting

19.5 in H X 12.5 in W
25.5 in H X 18.5 in W

One of the first American artists to witness the work of Millet and the other Barbizon painters, Hunt introduced influential Bostonians to the Barbizon School, which helped establish the romantic aesthetic in the United States. Fontainebleau Forest is located near the village of Barbizon, not far from Paris, France. In the 19th century, it was the rallying point for a new style of landscape painting first in France, and then in America, which emphasized a romantic response to nature and a new sympathy for the work of agrarian laborers. This painting was probably painted while Hunt was in residence there in the 1850s, although it could have been one of those finished upon his return in Newport.

Gift of Mildred Thaler Cohen, 1999; Seymour R. Thaler and Mildred Thaler Cohen Collection

Accession/ID Number 99.25.28