Paul Désiré Trouillebert

PAUL DÉSIRÉ TROUILLEBERT (Paris, 1829-1900).
"Barbizon landscape with characters".
Oil on canvas.
Signed in the lower margin.
Measurements: 33 x 41 cm; 49,5 x 57,5 cm (frame).

This splendid painting of Paul Désiré Trouillebert immerses us in a rural scene, calm and rustic, characteristic of the village of Barbizon and its surroundings.

Among the group of peasant buildings, a medieval-looking stone tower stands out, possibly the bell tower of a rural church or part of an old fortified farmhouse, with its sloping slate roof. Around it are grouped more humble houses with brown roofs and white walls.

The work is bathed in a soft, natural light, typical of the warm morning hours. The color palette is restrained and earthy, dominated by soft greens, browns and ochers, with the pale blue of the sky.

Small figures animate the scene. In the foreground, beside a stream, a washerwoman (a recurring figure in the painting of the period) is kneeling at work. Further in the background, a woman with a white cap or bonnet, together with a child, walk integrating themselves into the landscape. These figures, rather than portraits, are elements that give scale and a sense of everyday life to the composition.

The execution is loose but controlled. The foliage of the tall trees and bushes is treated with light, vaporous touches, a technique that defines the artist's style.

Trouillebert is considered one of the leading members of the Barbizon School. This group of French painters revolutionized art in the 1830s-1870s by rejecting idealized, academic landscape painting. Instead, they left the studio to paint en plein air, capturing nature in a more direct, realistic and humble manner. This painting, with its rustic subject and natural light, is a remarkable example of this school.

Paul Desiré Trouillebert was a French painter of the Barbizon School, also attracted to Orientalism. He was a pupil of Ernest Hébert (1817-1908) and Charles Jalabert (1819-1901), and made his presentation at the Paris Salon of 1865, exhibiting a portrait. He produced many landscape paintings very close to the manner of painting of Camille Corot in his late period. At the Paris Salon of 1869 Trouillebert exhibited Au bois Rossignolet, a landscape of Fontainebleau which received rave reviews. Interested in Orientalism, he painted some nudes set in ancient Egypt such as The Harem Servant (1874, Nice, musée des beaux-arts). His work is preserved in the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg and the Musée des beaux-arts in Nice, among other important collections.