The Barbizon artists’ colony, past and present – without hungarians
MúzeumCafé 50.
In the heart of France there is a small, concealed settlement, where the almost spiritual lure of undefiled nature is intertwined with creativity and the arts. Barbizon is still a utopian-like place, where man and nature are in ideal symbiosis. The 1830s saw the arrival of several French artists who, leaving their studios, had the longing to enter into the spirit of the pleasure of creation. They were the founders of the Barbizon School, the first representatives of the local artists’ colony, who were later followed by many others, including great Hungarian artists. The noted painters who worked here included Jean-François Millet, Théodore Rousseau, Charles Jacque, Gustave Courbet, Jules Dupré and Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot, while among the Hungarians there was MihályMunkácsy, as well as LászlóPaál and GézaMészöly. Munkácsy and Paál arrived in Barbizon around 1870, and while the former gladly painted there, he didn’t join the school, though Paál did become a member. Mészöly likewise stayed and worked as part of the colony. The increasingly rich art of Barbizon is today extremely colourful and varied. Almost everyone who comes, even today, is seeking to live within the unity of nature and art, like the original pioneers. Many of the locals are artists, all working in their own style, thus they don’t represent a unified Barbizon school or colony – in contrast with their predecessors, the generation of realist landscape painters. While the earlier artists mainly chose nature as their theme, producing their paintings with rich detail, today the artists represent a variety of approaches, which is discernible not only in the choice of themes, but also in the rendering. The only thing which brings together today’s Barbizon artists is the annual joint exhibition, staged in cooperation with the local authority.