Fontainebleau c. 1860s

Alphonse Jeanrenaud made this photograph, titled Fontainebleau, in France. Here we see the forest of Fontainebleau, a place associated with royal hunts and, since the 1830s, increasingly with the French landscape painting of the Barbizon school. Jeanrenaud's choice of Fontainebleau connects his photography to a cultural moment in which artists were turning away from the academy and engaging with nature. The act of representing the natural world had clear political associations. In the wake of the French Revolution, nature was viewed as an embodiment of liberty and a space of respite from the rapidly industrializing cities. The photograph thus speaks to broader social issues. It is a product of specific economic and political circumstances. To truly understand the image, we need to look into how the artist saw their role, as well as the cultural and institutional factors that impacted their work. Through archival sources and critical analysis, the historian attempts to reconstruct this complex story.