FRENCH BARBIZON, IMPRESSIONISM and MODERN

In the 19th century, landscape painting became an important genre. Artists were seeking reality and political liberalism thus gaining self-confidence and positivism in their work.

The essence of the Barbizon school, haven to well-known painters during the 1840s just south of Paris, was the urge to grasp nature by working 'en-plein-air' in preference to dark studios and academic studies. Working outdoors permitted light to play a major role and supported a more realistic way of painting. The perception of light enhanced by a vivacious brush stroke eventually resulted in the art form of impressionism, together with important events such as the arrival of Japanese art. Fauvism and its culmination into cubism and of course the development of photography formed a bridge towards Modern Art, which minimizes its subject matter to the basis of bright, full use of colours and linear contours.