To offer you even more information about the museum and Mesdag’s art collection, and serve you better, we use cookies. By clicking ‘Accept’, you are giving us permission to use these cookies. Cookies help us to ensure that the website works properly. We also analyse how the website is used, so that we can make any necessary improvements. Advertisements can also be displayed tailored to your interests. And finally, we use cookies to display videos, forms, Google Maps and other embedded content.
Find out more about our cookies.

Home Language
  • Nederlands English
  • Plan your visit
  • To see
  • To do
  • About Mesdag and his collection
  • Highlights of the collection
  • Locations to hire
  • More about the museum
Contact Disclaimer Privacy & Cookies
Back to top
Menu
De Mesdag Collectie
To see

Under the spell of nature

Théodore Rousseau and Charles-François Daubigny adored nature. They frequently headed into the Forest of Fontainebleau to draw, capturing the unspoilt landscape in their own distinctive way. This presentation introduces their remarkable works on paper, which are rarely exhibited due to their fragility.

Théodore Rousseau (1812-1867) and Charles-François Daubigny (1817-1878) were among the artists who travelled to the village of Barbizon in France in the first half of the 19th century. Instead of idealising nature like their predecessors, they made more realistic paintings and drawings of the age-old woodlands.

The Mesdags amassed a large collection of works by Barbizon artists, of which the most drawings are by Rousseau and Daubigny. These drawings offer a varied introduction to their fascination with nature.

Collection presentation
Under the spell of nature. Drawings by Rousseau and Daubigny
On display from
24 June 2022
Admission
Tickets are only available online
Order tickets

Théodore Rousseau

Rousseau’s drawings unite meticulous observation and inner experience. He identified with the trees in his works, and made it his purpose to capture these ‘souls of the forest’. Rousseau experimented widely with different materials and techniques.

View this work
Théodore Rousseau, The Great Oaks of Old Bas-Bréau, 1857

Charles-François Daubigny

Daubigny mostly drew vast, sober landscapes, preferably on elongated paper. Daubigny was more concerned with capturing the atmosphere of the place than with offering an exact representation of what he saw.

View this work
Charles-François Daubigny, Moonlit Landscape with Flock of Sheep, 1859

Charles-François Daubigny

Discover more artworks by Daubigny

Théodore Rousseau

Have a look at Rousseau's artworks from our collection