‘Under the Birches’ – Theodore Rousseau, 1842

Part of the Barbizon school of French painters, and known as "le grand refusé" for the frequency with which his work was rejected by the fashionable salons of the day, Rousseau’s beguilingly simple realism captures the quotidian realities of life rather than its romantic extremities – but his treatment of light is quite superb, leading many these days to cite Rousseau (no relation to the other famous Rousseaus) as a precursor to the much later impressionists.

The National Gallery of Australia has a wee spiel on Rousseau and this work you might find entertaining.