View of Saleve, near Geneva

An ardent explorer of the remotest corners of France, Théodore Rousseau painted View of Salève, near Geneva during a three-month stay in the mountainous Jura region. Although his larger canvases were consistently excluded from the official Parisian art show known as the Salon, his smaller panoramic oil sketches found mainstream admirers. With a few deft strokes, Rousseau conveyed steep, rocky outcroppings; plains dotted with shrubs; and the luminosity of moisture-laden clouds and sky.