The Barbizon School was a group of 19th-century French painters who focused on naturalism and realism. Active from the 1830s to the 1870s, they often painted landscapes and rural scenes, emphasizing the beauty of nature and everyday life. The school is named after the village of Barbizon, near the Forest of Fontainebleau, where many artists gathered to work and draw inspiration. Key figures of the Barbizon School include Jean-François Millet, Theodore Rousseau, and Camille Corot. Their work laid the foundation for later movements, such as Impressionism, by prioritizing direct observation of nature and capturing the effects of light and atmosphere.