Barbizon school

Corot, Road by the Water, c. 1865–70, oil on canvas. Clark Art Institute Charles-François Daubigny, The Pond at Gylieu, 1853

The Barbizon school (French: école de Barbizon, pronounced [ekɔl də baʁbizɔ̃]) is the name given to oil painters and others who were part of an art movement advancing Realism in art, which arose in the context of the dominant Romantic Movement of the time. Roughly active from 1830 through 1870, the "school" gained its name from the village of Barbizon, France, on the edge of the Forest of Fontainebleau, where many of the artists gathered. Most of their works were landscape painting, which occasionally included farmworkers, and genre scenes of village life. Some of the most prominent features of this school are its tonal qualities, color, loose brushwork, and softness of form.