There is a village 40 miles south-west of Paris called Barbizon. The village set the scene for some Parisian artists who wanted to get a break from Paris go out into the country side with their easels and paint. Popular was also the Forest of Fountainebleau.
The French Barbizon School is not any more unique than many other contemporary acts such as the Newlyn school. In context, the invention of paint tubes made the act of painting outdoors or plein air much more realistic as a pursuit. It coincides with European artists redefining the rôle of painting as a form of art. Some would argue that impressionism may never have occured exactly the way it did, had it not been for two things:
1) this tiny, though not insignificant breakthrough in affordable, commercial grade portable paint technology as combined with…
2) the invention of the camera for staged, detailed, studio realism.
Baribizon School artists were: Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot, Théodore Rousseau, Emile van Marcke, Jean-François Millet, and Charles-François Daubigny; other members included Jules Dupré, Constant Troyon, Charles Jacque,Pierre Emmanuel Damoye, Charles Olivier de Penne, Henri Harpignies, Gabriel-Hippolyte Lebas, Albert Charpin, Félix Ziem, François-Louis Français, Narcisse Virgilio Diaz, and Alexandre Defaux.
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