The Old Forest

1860-1870

In 1849 Charles-Émile Jacque settled in Barbizon, a village near what had become the center of landscape painting in France: the vast Forest of Fontainebleau. By that year, eight trains a day were traveling direct from Paris to Barbizon, bringing thousands of “nature tourists” from the city.

Here, Jacque portrays a blue-smocked peasant standing near one of Fontainebleau’s famous old trees, an image of labor made to seem gentle and timeless. The forest actually belonged to the French crown, which limited how villagers could use it. Sheep were only permitted to graze at the edge of the forest, for example.