Prints and Authors in the Time of Manet

Chickens (Poules)

Etching, about 1850
Museum purchase, 1912.1168

Charles-Émile Jacque was a member of the Barbizon school of painters, a group of painters working in the Fontainebleu Forest region of France. They were part of a movement that turned away from academic Romanticism, preferring to paint “en plein air” (in the open air). Popular in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, Romanticism emphasized intuition, emotion, and imagination. The Barbizon painters were more interested in naturalism and painted directly from nature. Other artists in this exhibition associated with the Barbizon school include Jean-François Millet and Charles-François Daubigny.