Morning, about 1855–60, Théodore Rousseau, oil on panel. Musée d'Orsay, Paris, gift of Eduoardo Mollard, 1961, RF 1961-24
“The Great Landscape Painter of Our Time”: Théodore Rousseau and the Imaging of 19th-Century France
GETTY CENTER
Museum Lecture Hall
Simon Kelly, curator of modern and contemporary art at the St. Louis Art Museum, explores Rousseau’s central position in 19th-century French landscape painting. Kelly questions the dominant narrative of plein air naturalism surrounding his work, instead arguing for a more complex view of an artist producing deeply meditated imagery, drawing on a broad range of interests including literature, music, and philosophy. Kelly also places Rousseau’s output within the context of the Barbizon artistic colony, which included his close friend, Jean-François Millet.
