The pictures painted by the group of French artists who lived around Ban, bizon, have been for many years the admiration of the artistic world. But very little has yet been done to tell their story, and it is the aim of this volume to set forth the biographies of these artists, illustrated with such representa tions of their works as will give an adequate conception of their methods and achievements. Personal knowledge of these artists I have had none, and for this reason it has been possible, perhaps, to take a less partial view than those writers nearly all Frenchmen — who have written articles, pamphlets, or monographs on the artists, which have been chie?y eulogies, and at the best have either been brief or unsatisfactory. To those who have not yet felt the in?uence of the painters of the Barbizon School, the claim of impartiality may appear, in certain instances, somewhat questionable, but I have carefully avoided ex treme commendation, and the praise accorded is believed in every case to be fully deserved.