Théodore Fourmois (1814–71)
Paysage (Landscape), 1867

Oil on canvas
McMullen Museum of Art, Boston College, Gift of Charles Hack and the Hearn Family Trust

Jeffery Howe
Professor Emeritus, Art History

Echoing Flemish and Dutch Baroque landscapes, this painting captures the peaceful beauty of the Belgian rural landscape. The clouds and broken tree recall both Baroque naturalism and the scientific studies of the Romantics. Shafts of light illuminate the farmhouse and fields. Fourmois was a forerunner of the School of Tervuren, visiting there often in the 1840s and 1850s.