The Forest in Winter at Sunset | Théodore Rousseau | Collection Database | Works of Art

Signatures, Inscriptions, and Markings

Signed (lower left): TH.Rousseau.

Gallery LabelThe putative subject of "The Forest in Winter at Sunset" is Bas-Bréau, a section of Fontainebleau Forest. But Rousseau seems to have begun working on the painting, or at least on studies for it, while staying on the other side of Paris in the spring of 1846. By that time, his Salon submissions had been rejected for a decade, hence his nickname, Le Grand Refusé. The painting's vast size is consistent with the artist's ambition to trump this reputation, but "The Forest in Winter" remained unfinished and unexhibited at his death.

ProvenanceThe artist, Paris (until d. 1867; his estate sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, April 27, 1868, no. 52, as "Forêt d'hiver," for Fr 10,000 to Durand-Ruel); [Durand-Ruel, Paris, 1868–80]; Charles(?) Edwards, Paris (1880–81; his sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, February 24, 1881, no. 52, for Fr 48,600 to Durand-Ruel); [Durand-Ruel, Paris, 1881–87; sold for Fr 25,000 to Robertson for American Art Association]; [American Art Association, New York, 1887–92; sale, "The Collections of the American Art Association to be Absolutely Sold by Auction to Settle the Estate of the Late R. Austin Robertson," New York, April 7–8, 1892, no. 155, as "Forest in Winter—Sunset," for $9,000 to Widener); P. A. B. Widener, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania (1892–1911)

Exhibition History

Paris. Musée du Louvre. "Théodore Rousseau, 1812–1867," November 29, 1967–February 12, 1968, no. 58.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Barbizon: French Landscapes of the Nineteenth Century," February 4–May 10, 1992, no catalogue.

References

[Étienne-Joseph-]T[héophile]. Thoré. L'Artiste 11 (December 26, 1847), p. 127.

Jean-François Millet. Letter to Théodore Rousseau. [1852] [excerpt published in Alfred Sensier, "La Vie et l'œuvre de J.-F. Millet," Paris, 1881, p. 148].

Frédéric Hartmann. Letter to Théodore Rousseau. April 15, 1859 [excerpt published and translated in Ref. Thomas 2000, p. 259 n. 126].

Alfred Sensier. Souvenirs sur Th. Rousseau. Paris, 1872, pp. 154–55, xiii.

Armand Silvestre. Galerie Durand-Ruel, recueil d'estampes, gravées à l'eau-forte. Paris, 1873, pp. 18–19, pl. LIV (engraving by Brunet-Debaines).

Catalogue of Paintings Forming the Private Collection of P. A. B. Widener, Ashbourne, near Philadelphia. [Paris], 1885–1900, vol. 1, p. 97, pl. 97 (engraving).

"Modern Painted Masterpieces." New York Times (March 29, 1892), p. 5.

Georges Lanoë and Tristan Brice. Histoire de l'école française de paysage (depuis le Poussin jusqu'à Millet). Paris, 1901, pp. 186, 271.

Émile Michel. "Théodore Rousseau et les peintres de Barbison [sic]." Revue des deux mondes, 5ème pér., 27 (May 1, 1905), pp. 165–66.

Prosper Dorbec. Théodore Rousseau: Biographie critique. Paris, 1910, p. 84.

Émile Michel. Great Masters of Landscape Painting. London, 1910, p. 342, ill. p. 327.

B[ryson]. B[urroughs]. "Recent Accessions." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 6 (February 1911), p. 40.

Paul Durand-Ruel. Mémoires de Paul Durand-Ruel. 1911–12 [published in Lionello Venturi, "Les Archives de l'impressionnisme," Paris, 1939, vol. 2, p. 167].

Prosper Dorbec. L'Art du paysage en France. Paris, 1925, p. 90.

Robert L. Herbert. Barbizon Revisited. Exh. cat., Cal. Pal. of the Leg. of Honor, San Francisco. Boston, 1962, p. 29.

Charles Sterling and Margaretta M. Salinger. "XIX Century." French Paintings: A Catalogue of the Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. 2, New York, 1966, pp. 84–86, ill.

Marie-Thérèse de Forges in Théodore Rousseau, 1812–1867. Exh. cat., Musée du Louvre. Paris, 1967, unpaginated.

Hélène Toussaint in Théodore Rousseau, 1812–1867. Exh. cat., Musée du Louvre. Paris, 1967, pp. 47, 88–89, 107, no. 58, ill.

Jean Bouret. L'École de Barbizon et le paysage français au XIXe siècle. Neuchâtel, Switzerland, 1972, p. 270, ill. p. 123.

John Rewald. "Should Hoving Be De-accessioned?" Art in America 61 (January–February 1973), p. 29.

Lydie Huyghe in René Huyghe. La Relève de l'imaginaire. La Peinture française au XIXe siècle: Réalisme, romantisme. Paris, 1976, p. 471.

Antoine Terrasse. L'Univers de Théodore Rousseau. Paris, 1976, p. 67.

Nicholas Green. Théodore Rousseau, 1812–1867. Exh. cat., Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, Norwich. London, 1982, pp. 31, 57, under no. 38.

Michael Clarke. Lighting up the Landscape: French Impressionism and its Origins. Exh. cat., National Gallery of Scotland. Edinburgh, 1986, pp. 15–16, fig. 3.

Barbizon & L'Ecole de la Nature. Exh. cat., Brame & Lorenceau. [Paris], 1992, unpaginated, under no. 41.

Dana Micucci. "Barbizon Revisited." Art & Antiques 18 (September 1995), p. 67.

Michel Schulman with the collaboration of Marie Bataillès in and Virginie Sérafino in Théodore Rousseau, 1812–1867: Catalogue raisonné de l'œuvre graphique. Paris, 1997, pp. 14, 216, under no. 393, ill. (color).

Michel Schulman with Marie Bataillès. Théodore Rousseau, 1812–1867: Catalogue raisonné de l'œuvre peint. Paris, 1999, p. 224, no. 374, ill.

Greg M. Thomas. "The Practice of 'Naturalism': The Working Methods of Théodore Rousseau." Barbizon: Malerei der Natur—Natur der Malerei. Munich, 1999, pp. 140–41, 147–48, 151 nn. 43, 45, fig. 5.

Greg M. Thomas. Art and Ecology in Nineteenth-Century France: The Landscapes of Théodore Rousseau. Princeton, 2000, pp. 31–32, 35, 41, 51–52, 55–56, 60–61, 75, 102, 122, 161, 163–65, 172, 174, 176, 185–90, 194–95, 198, 204, 226 n. 27, p. 257 nn. 103–4, p. 259 nn. 125–26, figs. 72, 88 (overall and detail).

Esmée Quodbach. "'The Last of the American Versailles': The Widener Collection at Lynnewood Hall." Simiolus 29, no. 1/2 (2002), pp. 56–57, fig. 11.

Petra ten-Doesschate Chu. Nineteenth-Century European Art. 2nd ed. Upper Saddle River, N.J., 2006, p. 242, fig. 10-20 (color).

Michael Clarke in Turner e gli impressionisti: La grande storia del paesaggio moderno in Europa. Exh. cat., Museo di Santa Giulia, Brescia. Treviso, 2006, p. 180, ill.

Chantal Georgel. La Forêt de Fontainebleau: Un atelier grandeur nature. Exh. cat., Musée d'Orsay. Paris, 2007, p. 87, ill. p. 198 and fig. 15 (both color).

Asher Ethan Miller in Masterpieces of European Painting, 1800–1920, in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2007, pp. 50–51, 301, no. 47, ill. (color and bw).

Simon Kelly in Kimberly Jones. In the Forest of Fontainebleau: Painters and Photographers from Corot to Monet. Exh. cat., National Gallery of Art. Washington, 2008, pp. 147, 193 n. 35.

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