H. Thompson (19th/20th Century) Oil on Board. Painting of fisherman and a tranquil river. Signed and dated 1915 lower left. 

Overall: 14 1/4 X 21 in. 

Sight: 8 1/2 X 15 1/4 in. 

#2738 . 

The Barbizon school of painters were part of an art movement toward Realism in art, which arose in the context of the dominant Romantic Movement of the time. The Barbizon school was active roughly from 1830 through 1870. It takes its name from the village of Barbizon, France, on the edge of the Forest of Fontainebleau, where many of the artists gathered. Most of their works were landscape painting, but several of them also painted farmworkers and genre scenes of village life. Some of the most prominent features of this school are its tonal qualities, color, loose brushwork, and softness of form. During the late 1860s, the Barbizon painters attracted the attention of a younger generation of French artists studying in Paris. Several of those artists visited Fontainebleau Forest to paint the landscape, including Claude Monet and Pierre-Auguste Renoir. In the 1870s those artists, among others, developed the art movement called Impressionism and practiced plein air painting. The Post-Impressionist painter Vincent van Gogh studied and copied several of the Barbizon painters as well, including 21 copies of paintings by Millet. Painters in other countries were also influenced by this art. In particular, the American Barbizon school was developed by William Morris Hunt in concurrence with the Hudson River School. Artists in this period (late 19th/early 20th Century) studied Barbizon paintings for their loose brushwork and emotional impact. Paintings from the Barbizon school also shaped landscape painting in California, and the long-lasting influence of their style can be seen around the world and right up to today, from Andrew Wyath to Cao Yong.