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Forest of Fontainebleau

Map of the forest of Fontainebleau

The forest of Fontainebleau is a mixed deciduous forest lying sixty kilometres southeast of Paris, France. It is located primarily in the arrondissement of Fontainebleau in the southwestern part of the department of Seine-et-Marne.

Most of it also lies in the canton of Fontainebleau, although parts of it extend into adjoining cantons, and even as far west as the town of Milly-la-Forêt in the neighboring department, Essonne. Several communes lie within the forest, notably the towns of Fontainebleau and Avon. The forest has an area of 280 km² (108 square miles).

The most common trees in the forest are: oak (44 %), Scots pine (40 %), and European beech (10 %). Three thousand species of mushrooms have been discovered. The forest is also home to approximately seven thousand animal species, five thousand of which are insects.

Flowers

* Tor-grass (Brachypodium pinnatum)

* Service tree of Fontainebleau (Sorbus latifolia), which is under national protection

* Snowy mespilus (Amelanchier ovalis), under national protection

* Common juniper (Juniperus communis)

* Orchids o Violet limodore (Limodorum abortivum) o Red helleborine (Cephalanthera rubra), under national protection

* Meadow rue (Thalictrum minus), under national protection

* Peach-leaved bellflower (Campanula persicifolia)

* Wild madder (Rubia peregrina)

* Burnet rose (Rosa pimpinellifolia)

* Cranesbill (Geranium sanguineum)

* Vincetoxicum (Vincetoxicum hirundinaria)

* Red feather clover (Trifolium rubens), under national protection

grotte beatrix

Birds

* Great spotted woodpecker (Dendrocopos major)

* Lesser spotted woodpecker (Dendrocopos minor)

* Great tit (Parus major)

* Blue tit (Parus caeruleus)

* Chiffchaff (Phylloscopus collybita)

* Willow warbler (Phylloscopus trochilus)

* Bonelli’s warbler (Phylloscopus bonelli)

* Blackcap (Sylvia atricapilla)

Tour de denecourt

More than 100 works by artists such as Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot (1796–1875), Théodore Rousseau (1812–1867), Jean-François Millet (1814–1875), Claude Monet (1840–1926), Gustave Le Gray (1820–1884), and Eugène Cuvelier (1837–1900) explore the French phenomenon of plein-air (open-air) painting and photography in the region of Fontainebleau, a pilgrimage site for aspiring landscape artists.

a man in the forest of Fontainebleau (renoir)


a man in the forest of Fontainebleau (renoir)

Some 35 miles southeast of Paris, the Forest of Fontainebleau became a magnet for artists and tourists in the 19th century. It was accessible, beautiful, and visually compelling, with a rare mix of traditional rural French villages and natural landscape features, including magnificent old-growth trees, stark plateaus, dramatic rock formations, and stone quarries. Best known for the informal artists’ colony centered in the village of Barbizon, the Forest of Fontainebleau became a nearly obligatory stop for both French and foreign artists, and served as subject and sanctuary, "natural studio" and open-air laboratory for investigating nature.

Spanning half a century, from the mid-1820s through the 1870s, this artistic movement gave rise to the Barbizon School of painting and laid the groundwork for impressionism. The forest also inspired a new school of landscape photography, as figures such as Gustave Le Gray and Eugène Cuvelier, working side by side with painters, explored the camera’s potential to reveal nature in a fresh and unadorned manner. The exhibition also includes 19th-century artists’ equipment and tourist ephemera.