The forest at Fontainebleau was a favorite subject of Barbizon artists, who were by its beauty and its proximity to Paris. Rousseau, a premier Barbizon painter, was attacked by critics in the 1830s and 1840s for his humble farm and forest scenes, which they considered to be "vulgar." The two figures in this landscape may be Rousseau himself and the adopted daughter of George Sand; the two were engaged in 1845.