Hamlet in the Auvergne
Returned to lender
This work of art was on loan to the museum and has since been returned to its lender.In 1830, the eighteen-year-old Rousseau set out on a sketching expedition in the rugged Auvergne region of central France that would change the course of landscape painting. From a high perch, the artist painted this panoramic view of an unidentified hamlet nestled at the base of a steep cliff among swelling hills. Upon his return to Paris, sketches like this one were celebrated by leading figures of the Romantic generation, establishing Rousseau’s reputation. The French countryside took its place as the equal of Italy’s, with the frankness of touch seen here becoming the vernacular idiom for representing it in paint.
Artwork Details
- Title: Hamlet in the Auvergne
- Artist: Théodore Rousseau (French, Paris 1812–1867 Barbizon)
- Date: 1830
- Medium: Oil on paper, mounted on canvas
- Dimensions: 13 3/4 × 21 in. (34.9 × 53.3 cm)
- Classification: Paintings
- Credit Line: Promised Gift of Jon and Barbara Landau, in celebration of the Museum's 150th Anniversary
- Curatorial Department: European Paintings