Médaillon Millet & Rousseau

Historical context

Halfway up the rocky slope at the edge of the forest, a bronze medallion marks the place where two of the greatest painters of the nineteenth century chose to be remembered together. The double portrait was placed here because this was where they worked -- not in the studios of Paris, not in the academies, but on this path, in this light, with these trees. Millet died in 1875, Rousseau in 1867. They are buried side by side in the cemetery of Chailly-en-Biere. The medallion is quieter than a monument. It asks you to look at the forest, not at it.

Historical research: grappilles.fr — Barbizon Histoire et Patrimoine