Wanting to escape the suffocating urbanism of Paris, Camille Corot is
in search of the truest landscape that he wants to represent and starts exploring the Fontainebleau’s forest in 1822.

In 1824, the Ganne couple open their inn, encouraged by the first artists
who came to Barbizon. Where is it Barbizon? Like the artist Amédée Servin said, "It is in the Fontainebleau’s forest, at the most admirable place, we smoke pipes under the big oaks and we paint colorful rocks, you will see how beautiful it is."

At this time, this attraction for nature shown by the painters is new and corresponds to a romantic sensitivity. The forest scares travelers. This come-back to nature advocated by Jean-Jacques Rousseau is amplified
by the Romantic era and play a key role in the revival of landscape painting in the 19th century. Revolution for that time, they set up their easels in the clearings, the fields, the farms, to make nature itself the main subject of their paintings. Because until then, artists were settling for go on the spot to draw a few sketches before realizing their painting in the studio. Under the name "École de Barbizon" (approximately 1835 to 1870) is designated a pictorial movement celebrating the rural landscape, often without characters, with
a dark tone putting forward the daily life.
























The Ganne inn became the place of residence of the artists traveling in Barbizon who came to paint "sur le motif" in the nearby forest. Painters
flock around Camille Corot between 1825 and 1875. Among them,
Charles-François Daubigny, Jean-François Millet and Théodore Moreau. They have in common light’s searches. This realistic style, but with a slightly romantic intonation — characterized by their almost exclusive specialization in landscape and their direct study of nature — will influence the rest of
19th century French painting, especially impressionism.

The inn houses now the permanent collection of the Barbizon’s painters Museum. It is made up of both the decorations made on the furniture and walls of the inn by the painters who were housed there and a collection of paintings, drawings and prints representative of these artists’ production.
 

"L’auberge Ganne" and the impressionism's birth

Jules Coignet, "Les peintres sur le motif" en forêt de Fontainebleau,
Barbizon's painters Museum

Auberge Ganne, Barbizon's painters Museum




2211 characters — 09/19/2021