The Painter Gabriël Working in a Boat, Willem Bastiaan Tholen

The Painter Gabriël Working in a Boat, Willem Bastiaan Tholen

For centuries artists were bound to their places of work, mixing pigment and oil to make sufficient paint for their day's needs. There was no point making extra, as it would have dried out by the next day. It was impossible to paint outside because of the amounts of material that had to be taken along. All this changed in the 19th century with the invention of the tube. It meant that paint could be taken with you ready-mixed in a handy container and, even better, it wouldn't dry out. This is how the painter's box came into being, containing everything the artist might need, like paint and a small panel to paint on, which was fixed to the inside of the lid. With a box like this, artists were no longer obliged to work in one spot. So they gained the same kind of freedom as a laptop gives us today. It also allowed them to paint outside in the open air, which meant they could soon see that the landscape was not a static subject, but that everything was constantly changing: the light, the shadow and the colours. It altered their view of reality and gave the initial impetus to Impressionism. Prior to the Impressionists, there were several other painters around 1840 who left the depravity of Paris in favour of the pure outdoor life and the countryside. They settled in Barbizon, a village near Fontainebleau. It was the first artist's community of the 19th century. Many of these - often idylic - work and living communiti