Undergrowth

Undergrowth from 1847 by Theodore Rousseau is a study of the forest floor that epitomizes the Barbizon painters' attention to the most intimate and humble aspects of nature. Rousseau's undergrowth paintings reveal the rich detail of forest ecology that academic painters overlooked. Rousseau was the leading figure of the Barbizon School and spent decades painting in the Forest of Fontainebleau, developing a technique of direct observation that anticipated the Impressionist commitment to painting

The dense vegetation is rendered with careful observation of individual plants and light filtering through the forest canopy, demonstrating Rousseau's naturalistic approach.