This is the name given to a community of mid-19th-century painters who worked in and around the village of Barbizon in the forest of Fontainebleau, south-east of Paris.
The artists associated with this area include Millet, Rousseau, Diaz, Corot and Daubigny. They painted landscapes and scenes of rural life, occasionally working in the open air. In this respect they were important precursors of the Impressionists.
