Trees near Barbizon

c. 1855–76

Diaz’s images of the forest of Fontainebleau often center on figures set in rough, rocky landscapes, painted with the energy and spontaneity of a sketch. In this panel, however, the symmetrical alignment of the four principal trees suggests that the artist devised the composition in his imagination rather than painting it directly from nature.

Medium	oil on panel
Dimensions	5 1/8 x 7 3/16 in. (13 x 18.3 cm)
Object Number	1955.713
Acquisition	Acquired by Sterling and Francine Clark before 1955
Status	Off View

Image Caption

Narcisse Virgile Diaz de la Peña, Trees near Barbizon, c. 1855–76, oil on panel. Clark Art Institute, 1955.713

Select Bibliography

Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Exhibit Five, Supplement: South Gallery. Exhibition catalogue. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1959. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. List of Paintings in the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1970. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. List of Paintings in the Sterling & Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1972. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. List of Paintings in the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1984. Kern, Steven, ed. List of Paintings in the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1992. Lees, Sarah, ed. Nineteenth-Century European Paintings at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute; New Haven and London: distributed by Yale University Press, 2012.

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EUROPEAN PAINTINGS CATALOGUE ENTRY

Provenance

Charles H. Truax, New York (until 1882, his sale, Leavitt & Co., New York, 5 Dec. 1882, no. 28, as A Clump of Trees Near Barbizon); Colonel Henry T. Chapman Jr., Brooklyn (possibly from 1882, possibly his sale, American Art Galleries, New York, 13–16 Apr. 1888);¹ Jay Gould, New York (d. 1892); Helen Miller Gould Shepard, New York, his daughter, by descent (1892–d. 1938); Finley Johnson Shepard, New York, her husband, by descent (1938–d. 1942, his sale, Kende Galleries, New York, 12–14 Nov. 1942, no. 591, ill., as A Clump of Trees Near Barbizon); [Knoedler, New York, sold to Clark, 17 Nov. 1942]; Robert Sterling Clark (1942–55); Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1955. 1. This sale included thirteen works by Diaz, but no dimensions or illustrations are given, so the identities of most works cannot be determined.