Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

View of Le Rageur under a stormy sky, Fontainebleau

Narcisse Virgile Diaz de la Peña
1807-1876

View of Le Rageur under a stormy sky, Fontainebleau

4 1/2 x 6 7/16 inches (115 x 163 mm)
Watercolor, opaque watercolor, pen and brown ink on wove paper
2022.331

Gift of Karen B. Cohen in Memory of Charles Ryskamp.

Notes
Before he fell under the influence of Rousseau and followed him into the forest of Fontainebleau, Diaz decorated porcelain and painted sentimental figures. In Fontainebleau, he shifted his focus to the wild, untouched parts of the forest, recognizing that nature contained a drama of its own. Diazʼs commercial success as a landscape painter allowed him to extend aid to fellow Barbizon artists like Millet and Rousseau.
Patricia Mainardi has identified the tree in this view as Le Rageur (the Raging One), a revered oak in the forest of Fontainebleau that inspired artists and writers throughout the nineteenth century until its collapse in 1904.
Associated names
Cohen, Karen B., former owner.
Bibliography
Patricia Mainardi, "Romanticism's Avatar: Le Rageur of the Forest of Fontainebleau," Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide 23, no. 2 (Autumn 2024)
Classification
Century Drawings
School
Department