Alexis Fournier, of the Barbizon School, Definition Promised

         The Barbizon School  (1830-1870) gets its name from the village of Barbizon in northern France where a group of landscape artists lived and worked.  They rejected the classical landscape style, instead working directly from nature, creating  realistic images of the countryside.  They glorified the lives of the ordinary workers in these villages even to selecting their subjects for political and social reasons.  Though unpopular among the elite of Paris, their work became highly prized by the late 19th and early 20th centuries. 

          Alexis Fournier admired the work of these artists, lived for a while in the region in France and became known as one of the Barbizon School.  Alexis Fournier lived out his last days in East Aurora, having been drawn to Elbert Hubbard's Roycroft.

          As mentioned in an earlier blog, his remarkable murals for the Roycroft Inn Salon can be seen any day, at the Inn in East Aurora, up the Appian Way, across Grove street from the Roycroft Campus and Roycroft Copper Shop. 

          The Copper Shop, now during the summer, open daily 10 am-5 pm  PLUS Wednesday and Fridays until 7 pm.