"
The fact that these men, more than any painters before their time,
had, by direct study from nature, developed strongly individual
characteristics, makes this title, localized as it is by the name of a
village with which a number of them had slight, if any, connection,
a misnomer. The French name for the group, "the men of 1830," is more
correct; for it was about that time that their influence in the Salon
began to be felt, as a result of the pictorial invasion of Constable.
Lacking the poetic feeling of Corot, and more realistic in his aims,
though not always in result, Rousseau met with instant success when
he exhibited for the first time at the Salon in 1834. His picture,
"Felled Trees, Forest of Compiegne," received a medal, and was
purchased by the Due d'Orleans. The following year the jury, presided
over by Watelet, a justly forgotten painter, refused Rousseau's
pictures, and from that time until 1849, when the overthrow of Louis
Philippe had opened the Salon doors to all comers, no picture by
Rousseau was exhibited at the Salon.
[Illustration: ON THE RIVER OISE. FROM A PAINTING BY CHARLES FRANCOIS
DAUBIGNY.
A typical French river, with the familiar figures of peasant women
washing linen in the stream. Probably painted during one of the
voyages of his house-boat studio "Le Bottin," in which the painter
passed many summers.
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