Inspired by the possibilities of painting in nature, rather than in the studio, artists traveled to the rugged Forest of Fontainebleau near Paris from the early 1820s to the mid-1870s forging innovations in art that would resonate for generations to follow. There, among the rural villages and the vast and varied wilderness, they laid the groundwork for Impressionism, influenced the development of landscape photography, and raised early advocacy for nature conservancy. In the Forest of Fontainebleau: Painters and Photographers from Corot to Monet at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. The exhibition of 96 works will be on view through October 19.

Organized by the National Gallery of Art in association with the MFAH, the show is the first U.S. exhibition to trace the dual evolution of landscape painting and photography at Fontainebleau. It features multiple works by Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot and Claude Monet, the artists who represent the ends of the experimental spectrum at Fontainebleau, and also highlights works by Jean-François Millet and Théodore Rousseau, who were among the most diligent students of the forest and eventually made it their permanent home. Other featured artists include Frédéric Bazille, Narcisse Diaz de la Peña, Auguste Renoir, and Alfred Sisley. Among the nine photographers represented are such pioneers of the field as Gustave Le Gray, Eugène Cuvelier, and Charles Famin.

Gustave Courbet,1819-1877-The Guest of Wind

"In the Forest of Fontainebleau celebrates a crucial, fertile period in art history," said Aurisch. "Although the Impressionists are often credited with the innovation of painting outdoors directly in front of the motif, this exhibition wants to set the record straight by documenting the achievements of the earlier group of painters, who passed on their hard-earned experience to the young painters of Monet´s generation."

The exhibition will be installed in sections, each devoted to an aspect of the forest and its role in the development of naturalistic landscape painting and landscape photography: Discovery of the Forest; Trees and Rocks; Nature and Observation; Fontainebleau on a Grand Scale; and Village Life. More than 56 private and institutional lenders contributed works to the show, including the MFAH. The museum´s Great Oaks of the Vieux Bas-Bréau (1864) by Rousseau, Gustave Courbet´s Gust of Wind (1865), and two photographs by Le Gray, Tree, Forest of Fontainebleau (c. 1856) and Le Pavé de Chailly (1852) are among the highlights.