The Golden Pool presents a view of a hazy sun as it begins to disappear behind the horizon of a French countryside. Leon Richet captures a panoramic reflection of the dwindling sunlight and cloudy sky with airy brushstrokes and hints of green, brown and yellow to indicate texture. Overgrown shrubbery and towering, shadowy trees provide an imposing focal point and contrast to the abandoned canoe left at the shore of the secluded marsh. As the light reflects on the water with its abundance of lily pads, there is a feeling of tranquility and serenity within this untamed wilderness.
Richet, like many of his fellow artists in the Barbizon School, eagerly left their bustling studios situated in the city in favor of the transcendent majesty of the Fontainebleau Forest and small rural areas outside of Paris. Rich terrains, like the one seen here, became a sanctuary for these artists to fully experience nature. It was this movement that led to the recognition of landscapes as their own independent subject matter- a theme that was later explored by the French and American Impressionists.
Like the Impressionists, Jean Béraud was interested in painting a specific time and place. In this painting a fashionably dressed woman is seen walking through the hustle and bustle of one of Paris’ major public squares. Béraud often used the busy Parisian streets as inspiration. Béraud even designed a horse-drawn studio to shield him from the elements so he could capture such detailed, playful scenes of contemporary life in Paris.
Like other Realists of the nineteenth century, Monchablon was inspired by the example of the seventeenth-century Dutch artists. The year he began to paint landscapes, he traveled to the Netherlands. Although his landscapes have a decidedly modern look, they share certain features with Dutch works, such as low horizons giving prominence to skies, broad, panoramic views, and painstaking detail.
This painting features the similar flat geography that often appears in Monchablon’s works. The vast sky is mostly clear with a few feathery clouds floating throughout. The golden foreground and curves of the Saone draw the viewer’s eyes toward the horizon. In the distance harvesters can be seen tending to the fields.
Like the boulevards of Paris, London’s Hyde Park was the place to see and be seen. De Nittis interpreted this urban landscape with loose brushwork in the Impressionist style. The deeply shadowed foreground is balanced by brilliant sunlight that provides a high contrast burst of energy.
De Nittis enjoyed the good life. His filled his Paris apartment with friends like artists Edgar Degas and Edouard Manet and fed them lasagna, a specialty from his home in Naples. De Nittis influenced William Merritt Chase and perhaps inspired Louis Terah Haggin to purchase this painting as a reminder of when he lived in England.
Novelist Alexandre Dumas wrote of Troyon’s work that it was “striking, full of truth, energy and life.” The large scale of the painting reinforces Troyon’s interest in inviting the viewer to join the charming scene. The late summer afternoon and endless sky seem to go on forever.
Judging from her numerous paintings of them, deer were among Bonheur’s most popular subjects. According to the artist, her own interest in this theme began when she moved to By, where her property backed onto the Fontainebleau Forest, which then had a large deer population. She liked to track deer or lie in wait for them at night so she could observe their customary behavior, later sketching from memory what she had seen. Perhaps the example of Landseer was inspirational, for Bonheur expressed enthusiasm for his famous painting of deer. Her first deer paintings fate from the 1860s, a decade when the French Realist Gustave Courbet (1819-1877) frequently treated this subject. At the 1867 Paris Universal Exposition, she exhibited Deer in Repose (Detroit Institute of Arts) and Family of Deer Crossing the Summit of the Long Rocks (Forest of Fontainebleu, 1865, location unknown). In 1877 she built a pen for a doe and stag she used as models. Over the next twenty years, Bonheur’s production of deer paintings was considerable.
Sophistication is a typical example of Harry Willson Watrous’s numerous relatively large paintings of attractive women made between 1905 and around 1918. These women, many with the same red hair as this model, often wear dark clothing and pose in profile against a light background. This contrast and the close viewpoint emphasize shape and contour rather than perspective, although Watrous by no means abandons modeling. The women of this series sport fashionable garb; the svelte lines of this model are enhanced by the tailored suit that came into fashion in the 1890s. The feathered hat complements her graceful silhouette, as does the elegant chair, while the almost primitive paintings on the wall behind her act as a witty foil. This painting is as modern as Watrous dared to be.
