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The following biography is from the archives of askART.
The following was written and submitted by Jean Ershler Schatz, artist and researcher from Laguna Woods, California:
Pierre Etienne Theodore Rousseau was born in Paris, France in 1812. He first studied under Saint Martin, Remond and Guillon-Lethiere. The work he exhibited at the Salon in 1834-35 and 1838, showed a surprising deviation from the tastes of the time. The following year his painting was rejected by the Salon because of its lack of Classical interest, and he took himself off to the village of Barbizon in the Fontainebleau Forest, where he worked on the Romantic landscapes which have made him famous.
Rousseau's official success came after the Revolution of 1848. In 1849 his pictures were once more shown in the Salon, and with noteworthy success. He became a central figure of the Barbizon School; during this time he became close friends with Millet. In 1852 he was awarded the Legion of Honor. He painted with an exacting sense of detail and with a minute accuracy which betrayed the influence of the Dutch masters, Ruisdael and Hobbema. Rousseau died in 1867.
Sources include:
Masterpieces of Art, Catalogue of the New York World's Fair 1940
Oxford Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Arts, edited by John Julius Norwich