Théodore Rousseau

Statue of the painter on the facade of the Hôtel de Ville in Paris

Théodore Rousseau, photo by Nadar

Etienne Pierre Théodore Rousseau (born April 15, 1812 in Paris , † December 22, 1867 in Barbizon ) was a French landscape painter and brother of the lesser-known painter Philippe Rousseau . He was the founder of the Barbizon School , where the first outdoor painters came together. His work can be assigned to realism .

Life

Rousseau was born the son of a tailor in Paris in 1812 and grew up in a liberal and art-friendly family. He received his first artistic lessons from his cousin, the painter Alexandre Pau de Saint-Martin . When he was fifteen, the landscape painter Jean-Charles-Joseph Rémond took him on as a student for two years. In 1828 he moved to the studio of the history painter Guillaume Guillon-Lethière and stayed there until the end of 1829.

The subsequent study trips through Auvergne and Normandy were reflected in the subject matter of his works.

In 1831, the then 19-year-old Rousseau submitted a painting for the Paris Salon for the first time . This representation of a wild, natural landscape of the Auvergne was recognized because of the lively painting style. Since he was denied further success in the following four exhibitions in the salon , he did not exhibit publicly until 1849.

Rousseau founded the genre of paysage intimate , which borrowed the motifs for her pictures primarily from the Fontainebleau forest . In 1832/33 he painted there for the first time in the great outdoors, plein air . He spent the winter months of 1836/37 together with the painters Narcisso Virgilio Díaz de la Peña and Claude-Félix-Théodore Aligny in Barbizon . Impressed by the landscape, Rousseau returned every year and finally settled there with his wife in 1848.

Over time, colleagues gathered around him who wanted to paint nature in nature like him. This created the Barbizon School over time .

Théodore Rousseau died in Barbizon in 1867 at the age of 55. He rests in the Chailly-en-Bière cemetery next to his friend, the painter Jean-François Millet .

Awards and honors

• 1849: 1st class medal from the Paris Salon
• 1867: Medal of Honor at the Paris World Exhibition

The oaks of Apremont, 1852

plant

Rousseau sought a representation of the landscape that was precise down to the last detail and tried to capture its mood . Through the sharpness of his observation and its realistic rendering, Rousseau revolutionized French landscape painting, but was not recognized by his contemporaries.

Often fleeting and sketchy in the coloristic treatment, recently too detailed and therefore less fresh, his landscapes always exert a deep poetic charm.

Factory selection

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  Market in Normandy , around 1832, oil on canvas, 29.5 × 38 cm, Saint Petersburg , Hermitage

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  Thunderstorm mood on the plains of Montmartre , around 1845/48, 24 × 36 cm, Paris, Musée d'Orsay

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  Sunset near Arbonne , around 1845/1846, oil on canvas, 64 × 99 cm, New York , Metropolitan Museum of Art

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  The Little Fisherman , (French Le petit pêcheur ), around 1848/49, oil on canvas, 20.6 × 30.5 cm, Paris, Louvre

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  View of Barbizon , around 1850, oil on canvas, 24 × 32 cm, Moscow , Pushkin Museum

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  The Oaks of Apremont , 1852, oil on canvas, 63.5 × 99.5 cm, Paris, Louvre

• around 1848/49: Exit from the Fontainebleau forest, sunset (French: Sortie de forêt à Fontainebleau, soleil couchant ), oil on canvas, 142 × 197.5 cm, Paris, Louvre
• 1849: One avenue, Forest of Isle-Adam (French: Une avenue, forêt de l'Isle-Adam ), 101 × 82 cm, Paris, Musée d'Orsay
• 1853: A swamp in the Landes (French: Un marais dans les Landes ), 63 cm × 97 cm, Paris, Louvre
• around 1850/60: Searching for brushwood in the Fontainebleau forest , oil on canvas, 54.6 × 65.4 cm, Boston , Museum of Fine Arts

literature

• Michel Schulman Théodore Rousseau. Catalog Raisonne de l'Oeuvre Graphique . Paris 1997, ISBN 2-909225-13-5 .

Web links

Commons : Théodore Rousseau  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Works by Théodore Rousseau at Zeno.org .