Landscape

In a scene devoid of human life or narrative anecdote, two trees take center stage. The animated, calligraphic lines denoting their twisted branches create the sense of a vibrant, living natural world.

Diaz de la Peña was a member of the Barbizon School, a loosely affiliated group of landscape artists working between 1830 and 1870. Many lived in Barbizon, a village on the edge of the Forest of Fontainebleau, about 40 miles outside of Paris. They treated the expansive forest as their studio, creating works such as this drawing, which offered urban viewers an escape from life in the modern city and the chance to connect with the natural world.