The Barbizon School sought to legitimize landscape painting in opposition to the French Academy. Landscapes were not recognized as a suitable subject by the French Academy, which strictly adhered to the idealized styles of Neoclassicism and Romanticism. Artists of the Barbizon School pioneered Realism by truthfully depicting their landscapes from direct observation of the Forests of Fontainebleau. Their artistic philosophies of quick painting en plein air (out of doors) and close attention to the interplay between light and the natural world directly influenced the later Impressionist group who trained in Barbizon. Camille Magnus was a student of famed Barbizon artist Narcisse Diaz de la Peña, though his brighter palette and loose brushwork aligns him stylistically with later generations of the movement.
