Nineteenth Century, Realism, Barbizon, 1830–1890

In the 1800s, a more rational and refined aesthetic was promoted by the French Academy, a conservative organization that set the standards for art. However, starting in the mid-1800s, artists associated with the Realist movement rejected foreign and classical subjects and focused on scenes of everyday life in minute detail, flaws and all. A group of French artists united around 1830 to form the Barbizon School, named after a small village outside of Paris where they lived and painted. Rebelling against the French Academy’s refined, idealized landscapes, these artists infused the immediacy of the sketches they created outdoors into their finished studio paintings. Artworks by William-Adolphe Bouguereau, Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, Gustave Courbet, Thomas Couture, Charles François Daubigny, Honoré Daumier, Narcisse Virgile Diaz de la Peña, Henri Fantin-Latour, Charles Emile Jacque, Edouard Manet, Jean-François Millet, Pierre-Cécile Puvis de Chavannes, Théodore Rousseau, Constant Troyon, and unknown artists can be found in the Nelson-Atkins collection.