Into the Woods

WASHINGTON, DC—The forest of Fontainebleau, 35 miles southeast of Paris, is the subject of an engrossing exhibition, held March 2 through June 8, at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. On view are paintings, pastels and photographs by plein air artists such as Corot and Millet, their successors Monet and Renoir and a first wave of landscape photographers, memorably Gustave Le Gray and Eugène Cuvelier. The still-pristine park’s rugged rock formations, towering trees and cascading streams were immortalized in black-and-white by Le Gray’s and Cuvelier’s prints and in radiant color on canvases like Corot’s Le Rageur, a circa 1830 depiction of the oak known as “the raging one.” Would Impressionism have appeared without the woodland? Perhaps. But with its brilliant summer light, deep autumnal shadows and winter blankets of snow, it proved a tireless muse.

"Into the Woods" originally appeared in the March 2008 issue of Art+Auction. For a complete list of articles from this issue available on ARTINFO, see Art+Auction's March 2008 Table of Contents.