DOI Heft:
No. 151 (October, 1905)
DOI Artikel:Halton, Ernest G.: The Staats Forbes collection, 1, The Barbizon pictures
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.20713#0057
The Staats Forbes Collection
painters whose work forms one of the noblest
chapters in the records of Art.
There was also another influence at work. In
1824 Constable exhibited three pictures in the
Salon, the most important being The Haywain,
now in the National Gallery. The effect this work
had upon these young French artists wras remark-
able. The freshness of the colour, the wonderful
movement of the clouds, the feeling of air and
light, were a revelation to them. So impressed were
they, it is said, that in the short time before the
opening of the Exhibition some of them changed
the tones of their pictures, and Delacroix even
went so far as to repaint the whole of one of his.
Bonington and Copley Fielding were also repre-
sented in the Exhibition, and with Constable were
each awarded a gold medal.
To Constable and his confreres, therefore, must
be given the honour of having inspired a school of
painting which is now recognised as expressing the
loftiest ideals of landscape art. It included Corot,
Rousseau, Millet, Diaz, Daubigny, Troyon, Jules
Dupre and Charles Jacque, and its influence on
modern Art cannot be over-estimated.
Of this small group of artists, who formed what
is known as the Barbizon School, Corot is certainly
the most interesting figure. His pictures reflect
the qualities of his beautiful nature. Serene, calm
and happy, he studied Nature with all the devotion
of his ardent spirit, and he painted her, not as we
see her, but as she appeared to his poetic vision.
In the Staats Forbes collection, Corot’s work may
be studied in its various phases. The finest example
is the Arcadia, which expresses all the tenderness
and poetic sentiment for which the artist is famous.
The rich tones of brown and green in the trees and
foreground, the subtle grey of the distant hill, and
the pale glow of the sunset, tingeing the building
in the background, form a delightful harmony of
colour. An atmosphere of idyllic enchantment,
emphasised by the three nymphs dancing on the
sward, permeates the scene. In the group of trees
“ BIRD’S-EYE VIEW OF THE VALLEY OF BAS MEUDON ”
BY TH. ROUSSEAU
39
painters whose work forms one of the noblest
chapters in the records of Art.
There was also another influence at work. In
1824 Constable exhibited three pictures in the
Salon, the most important being The Haywain,
now in the National Gallery. The effect this work
had upon these young French artists wras remark-
able. The freshness of the colour, the wonderful
movement of the clouds, the feeling of air and
light, were a revelation to them. So impressed were
they, it is said, that in the short time before the
opening of the Exhibition some of them changed
the tones of their pictures, and Delacroix even
went so far as to repaint the whole of one of his.
Bonington and Copley Fielding were also repre-
sented in the Exhibition, and with Constable were
each awarded a gold medal.
To Constable and his confreres, therefore, must
be given the honour of having inspired a school of
painting which is now recognised as expressing the
loftiest ideals of landscape art. It included Corot,
Rousseau, Millet, Diaz, Daubigny, Troyon, Jules
Dupre and Charles Jacque, and its influence on
modern Art cannot be over-estimated.
Of this small group of artists, who formed what
is known as the Barbizon School, Corot is certainly
the most interesting figure. His pictures reflect
the qualities of his beautiful nature. Serene, calm
and happy, he studied Nature with all the devotion
of his ardent spirit, and he painted her, not as we
see her, but as she appeared to his poetic vision.
In the Staats Forbes collection, Corot’s work may
be studied in its various phases. The finest example
is the Arcadia, which expresses all the tenderness
and poetic sentiment for which the artist is famous.
The rich tones of brown and green in the trees and
foreground, the subtle grey of the distant hill, and
the pale glow of the sunset, tingeing the building
in the background, form a delightful harmony of
colour. An atmosphere of idyllic enchantment,
emphasised by the three nymphs dancing on the
sward, permeates the scene. In the group of trees
“ BIRD’S-EYE VIEW OF THE VALLEY OF BAS MEUDON ”
BY TH. ROUSSEAU
39