Panoramic landscape 1833

This is Theodore Rousseau’s ‘Panoramic Landscape’, now hanging in the Brooklyn Museum. Rousseau was a leading figure of the Barbizon school in mid-19th century France, a group of artists who turned away from official Salon painting and towards direct observation of nature. Rousseau lived in a time of great social upheaval, marked by the rise of industrialization, urbanization, and the 1848 revolution. It was a period of intense debate about the relationship between humanity and nature, and the role of art in reflecting these changes. Rousseau, alongside other Barbizon painters, sought refuge in the Forest of Fontainebleau, finding in the French countryside a subject matter that spoke to the anxieties of a rapidly changing world. In this landscape, Rousseau captures the vastness of the countryside. It serves as a reminder of the value and beauty of the natural world, and prompts us to think about our own place within it.