The Woodcutters, late 1840s

Constant Troyon (1810 - 1865)

RA Collection: Art

Tall trees frame a clearing where woodcutters are sawing large trunks. In the distance, a woman in a red skirt walks with a male companion, while two further female figures ascend the pathway beyond.

This scene evokes the Forest of Fontainebleau, 35 miles outside Paris, which had become both a working forest and a tourist destination. Troyon was one of a generation of French painters who found inspiration there, in the area around the village of Barbizon.

Constant Troyon (1810-1865) was a French painter who was taught by the porcelain painter and founder of the Musée National de Céramique Denis-Désiré Riocreux (1791-1872). He started his career in the Sèvres factory studying at the same time landscape painting. He was later introduced to a number of forthcoming members of the Barbizon school. At the Salon of 1846 Troyon was awarded a First Class medal by Louis Napoleon and was made Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur in 1849. In his last years, Troyon he devoted himself almost exclusively to the painting of animals.