# The Marsh

- By: Constant Troyon (French, 1810–1865)
- Date: 1840
- Medium: Oil on canvas
- Classification: Painting
- Dimensions: 93 × 140 cm (36 1/2 × 55 in.); Framed: 122 × 169 cm (48 × 66 1/2 in.)
- Culture: France
- Credit line: Purchased with funds provided by David and Mary Winton Green
- Museum: [Art Institute of Chicago](https://www.artic.edu/artworks/146272)
- Rights: [Public domain (CC0)](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)
- Picture: https://www.artic.edu/iiif/2/7616bc53-7a4b-a7bb-0dac-131cf91aff80/full/!1920,1080/0/default.jpg
- Who can see it: Tweens profiles and older (museums give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the museum's own words)

Small figures of washerwomen cleaning their clothing in a marsh and laying them out to dry animate this bucolic landscape, along with a few animals. As a member of the Barbizon School—an artistic group that often worked in Fontainebleau, a forest outside Paris—Constant Troyon was interested in scenes of everyday rural life that emphasized nature’s inherent drama. He was known for his depictions of sky, which capture atmosphere and light through a free, painterly technique that later inspired the Impressionists, including Claude Monet.

Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0