Collection

The Pond at Fontainebleau (La Mare Fontainebleau)

Narcisse-Virgile Diaz de la Peña

Brooklyn Museum photograph

Object Label

For Diaz, like so many of the Barbizon painters, the Fontainebleau Forest outside of Paris proved a constant source of inspiration. In these two paintings, the painter adopts a similar compositional strategy, using large trees to frame a body of water or a clearing at the center of his scene. Diaz plays with the patterns of light and shadow created by sunlight filtering through the leaves onto the forest floor. He uses thick, black strokes to define the contours of the trees, as is particularly evident in the upper left corner of Forest Scene. In his autumnal pond scene, Diaz adds a touch of incident with the presence of a wood gatherer and her canine companion.

Caption

Narcisse-Virgile Diaz de la Peña (French, 1807–1876). The Pond at Fontainebleau (La Mare Fontainebleau), 1875. Oil on panel, 17 7/8 × 21 15/16 × 5 in. (45.4 × 55.7 × 12.7 cm) 29 1/2 × 33 1/4 in. (74.9 × 84.5 cm) frame: 29 × 32 1/2 × 4 in. (73.7 × 82.6 × 10.2 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of the executors of the Estate of Colonel Michael Friedsam, 32.792. (Photo: Brooklyn Museum)

Gallery

Not on view

Title

The Pond at Fontainebleau (La Mare Fontainebleau)

Date

1875

Geography

Place made: France

Medium

Oil on panel

Classification

Painting

Dimensions

17 7/8 × 21 15/16 × 5 in. (45.4 × 55.7 × 12.7 cm) 29 1/2 × 33 1/4 in. (74.9 × 84.5 cm) frame: 29 × 32 1/2 × 4 in. (73.7 × 82.6 × 10.2 cm)

Signatures

Signed and dated lower left: "N. Diaz 75"

Credit Line

Gift of the executors of the Estate of Colonel Michael Friedsam

Accession Number

32.792

Frequent Art Questions

  • The painters of the Barbizon School were really interested in landscape painting; they wanted to depict nature directly, outside of the classical conventions. That's why you'll see so many landscapes in a similar style on that wall.

    I do love Fontainebleau.
    Many of the Barbizon school painters worked in the Forest of Fontainebleau, just outside of Paris, as nature, rather than urban life, provided inspiration for their works. They got their name from the nearby village of Barbizon.

  • Does this painter have other paintings that don't have to do nature?

    Like other Barbizon School painters, Narcisse-Virgile Diaz de la Peña mostly painted landscape scenes of the Forest of Fontainebleau outside of Paris, some of which he livened up with gypsy figures. However, he also painted works designed to respond to popular 19th-century taste—oriental, mythological, and historical genre scenes, nudes, flower paintings, and fêtes galantes. Although the two works we currently have up by Diaz de la Peña are landscapes of the type he's most celebrated for, we do have a few portraits and allegorical scenes by him in our collection. But, none of those are on view right now. You can see them on our website later if you are interested.

Have information?

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Artists and makers

Narcisse-Virgile Diaz de la Peña

7 works in the collection