Wishing to escape urban civilisation, a generation of painters found refuge in Barbizon, a small village near Fontainebleau.
The major innovation: painting in the open air, on the spot.

Emile Mathon likes to depict the life of fishermen and port cities. A great traveller (Russia, Spain, Algeria...) his most representative works are those of Brittany and Normandy.
His paintings are luminous. The artist manages to transcribe the tranquillity of his small towns at the beginning of the century, far from the agitation due to industrialisation.
In his port scenes, Mathon mainly uses elongated formats, which give a particular panoramic view.