Sur les pas de Sisley, visite guidee a Moret-sur-Loing

Barbizon, Moret-sur-Loing and Yerres: Impressionism and its forerunners to the south of Paris

Escape from the hustle and bustle of Paris to savour the pleasures of nature on the outskirts of the city.
  1. Inspiration
  2. Itineraries
  3. Impressionist journeys in Paris Region
  4. Barbizon, Moret-sur-Loing and Yerres: Impressionism and its forerunners to the south of Paris

The influence of the Impressionists and the painters that preceded them is still palpable in the vast area between Yerres and Barbizon. The inspiring forests, charming villages and refreshing rivers and streams had a magnetic effect on the region’s painters.

Still today, the region is brimming with places with indelible connections to those artists’ lives.

The Barbizon School: finding beauty in nature

To the south of Paris, the Forest of Fontainebleau marked the movement by inspiring its forerunners, landscape painters known as the Barbizon School.

Forêt de Fontainebleau
Fontainebleau forest

Visit the charming village of Barbizon to discover the house and studio of Jean-François Millet and learn about the artist’s life, before heading to the Musée des peintres de Barbizon to find out all there is to know about the Barbizon School and its aesthetic innovations.

Entrée du musée
Musée Jean-François Millet

Moret-sur-Loing and Yerres: landscapes rich in inspiration

Just outside the Forest of Fontainebleau, the medieval city of Moret-sur-Loing was home to the painter Alfred Sisley for the last twenty years of his life. A dedicated trail, suitable for all the family, takes you to the places that inspired him.

Bougival%252C parcours impressionniste bords de Seine "barrage de la Marchine" peint par Sisley.
Sur les pas de Sisley

The nearby Yerres is home to the magnificent Propriété Caillebotte, which has been restored to its former glory.

Maison Caillebotte

Explore the Impressionnist scene in Paris Region

Renoir Gardens, Musée de Montmartre, Paris
Paris and Montmartre: the beating heart of the Impressionist scene
Art & culture
Be it in the cobbled streets of Montmartre or the exhibition rooms of Paris’s greatest museums, take a trip through time and discover the Impressionists’ depictions of the buzzing Paris scene.
Vue sur l'église devant laquelle est exposé le tableau impressionniste de Vincent Van Gogh la représentant, Auvers-sur-Oise 2005
Auvers and the Oise Valley: an invigorating hotbed of art
Art & culture
Retrace the steps of great artists from Van Gogh to Pissarro in Auvers and the Oise Valley.
Instant de bonheur, Chatou, Paris Region
Seine-side delights
Strolls
Though the new Paris provided abundant inspiration for the Impressionists, the development of the railways, improvements in painting equipment and the advent of leisure activities were to offer them fresh motifs a few miles outside the city.

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  • Copyright image: CDT Seine- et- Marne