L’Isle-Adam

L’Isle-Adam, a pretty town in an unspoilt corner on the banks of the Oise River, proved a source of inspiration for the landscape painters who were the precursors of Impressionism. Jules Dupré and his friends, members of the School of Barbizon, were fascinated by the special light around the Oise River and its forests as they set up their easels here from the middle of the 19^th century, capturing these parts on canvas.

Dupré arrived in L’Isle-Adam in 1845. At first, he shared a studio with his friend, the painter Théodore Rousseau, before settling here for good from 1850. Having spent time in the village of Barbizon south of Paris, Dupré found, in the Oise Valley north of the capital, the elements that would characterise his personal iconography, notably trees (in the state-owned forest), water (in the form of the Oise River) and cloudy skies. The Musée d’Art et d’Histoire Louis Senlecq exhibits one of his pastels, Le Pêcheur, that well illustrates these three themes.

Dupré played a pivotal role in the history of 19^th-century landscape painting. His style featured freer brushstrokes and a shift from the absolutely faithful copying of nature towards pure painting, putting to the fore colours, light and emotion. Just like his friends Camille Corot and Charles-François Daubigny, Dupré influenced the young Impressionist painters.

Attracted by the Oise Valley’s gentle way of life, further artists who settled in the area invited friends and pupils equally interested in painting “sur le motif”, outdoors and on the spot, to seize the moment in their canvases, to share their “fleeting vision” of these landscapes with their distinctive beauty.

To help you learn more about these painters, L’Isle-Adam Tourist Office proposes guided tours and river cruises with commentaries. To enjoy a more sporty tour, Val d’Oise Aventures organises canoeing outings linking L’Isle-Adam and Auvers-sur-Oise, while the Avenue Verte London-Paris cycle route crosses town on the section from Auvers-sur-Oise to Senlis.