The Marquis de Mesgriny, as he would later be renamed, was a part of the French tradition of landscape painting that came to be called Barbizon, a genre that included the likes of Corot, Courbet, Daubigny and Millet. They were some of the first painters to practice plein air painting--working outdoors in nature was the modus operandi for an artist rather than an adventure out of the ordinary. The Barbizon tradition began with artists venturing into the Fontainebleu forest in France, a place where painters could submerge themselves in the deep and moody woods without being too far from the open avenues of Paris. Long before the Impressionists, the Barbizon painters were the first to see the infinite possibilities in depicting simple and otherwise unspectacular, natural settings. Their pictures tended to be darker, more moody and subdued, than later schools of landscape painting would prove to be.

These artists were drawn to thick undergrowth and massive, overhanging trees that seemed to block out the sky. The best of them, however, had a more luminous quality, such as Pres de Plagny, Marne by Marquis de Mesgriny.

Born in Paris, Mesgriny always specialized in landscape painting, having studied under artists such as Maxime Lalanne and Jules Worms. Mesgriny was a part of the great movement to take painting outdoors. The focus was not to study, not to sketch but rather to paint complete pictures in the open air, away from the studios and the salons. Pres de Plagny, Marne is a wonderful Barbizon picture, although not of the typical, somber kind. It is much brighter and more open to the sky than other Barbizon paintings. In addition, there is a wonderful mix of both detailed and loose painting that could almost be described as ‘tight, impressionistic brushstrokes’. This technique is a testament to the statement many modern art historians make regarding the later Impressionist phenomenon, which in so many ways usurped the more ‘traditional’ nineteenth century genres, but was not as original as some think. It had its roots in the landscape painters, and specifically the Barbizon School and the many innovations they made in techniques of representation decades earlier. Mesgriny’s rendering of the water is a symbol of this phenomenon–it is not only as smooth as glass, but also has impressionistic strokes in the lily pads that reveal a blending of different techniques.

This painting’s subject is of a town in the suburb’s of Paris, called Plagny, which can be seen in the distance, in front of which runs the river Marne. Plagny is situated very close to where Euro Disney can be found today.