Grounding Tree Meditation Inspired by the Forest of Fontainebleau

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Announcer: This is a Getty podcast.

[Rising, meditative music]

Lilit Sadoyan: Today we’re exploring trees in Théodore Rousseau’s mid-19th-century painting, Forest of Fontainebleau, Cluster of Tall Trees Overlooking the Plain of Clair-Bois at the Edge of Bas-Bréau.

[Theme music begins]

Hi—I’m Lilit Sadoyan. I’m a longtime meditation practitioner and museum educator at Getty. Thanks for joining me as we bring mindfulness out of the gallery and into our daily lives.

Today, we’re discovering how to feel rooted and present like trees through Théodore Rousseau’s landscape painting of the forest of Fontainebleau. This episode begins with a breathing exercise to help relax your body and mind. We’ll then give a bit of history and context for the painting, and we’ll close with a grounding tree meditation. This series is also available as an audio podcast. If you’d like to step away from a screen for a few minutes, listen on your favorite podcast app. Now, if you’re ready, let’s jump in.

[Gong chimes]

[Slow, meditative music begins]

I invite you to close your eyes if that feels right for you today. Let’s just begin by taking a few deep breaths together.

In through your nose. [inhales]

Out through your mouth. [exhales]

Deep inhale.

Deep exhale.

One more deep breath in. [inhales]

And a deep breath out. [exhales]

And just let your breathing resume its natural rhythm. Whenever you’re ready, gently open your eyes.

[Bells chime]

What does it mean for an artist to know a place intimately? And what does it mean when that place is wild, untamed nature? In the painting Forest of Fontainebleau, Cluster of Tall Trees Overlooking the Plain of Clair-Bois at the Edge of Bas-Bréau, French artist Théodore Rousseau captured an edge of the forest near his house.

Try to picture the painting in your mind. This painting is dense with subject matter, but still fresh and lively. I can almost smell the earthiness of the forest. Some areas, such as the foreground of damp earth, are loosely painted, almost suggested. Ghostly boulders and broken branches are scattered across the forest floor towards the bottom of the composition. But the focus gathers around three trees at the center left of the painting. In the middle of the grouping is a great live oak. Its trunk anchors the scene while its branches unfurled in sinuous forms, spreading in all directions. This majestic oak, with its gnarled branches twisting and coiling, must have held the artist in quiet study. Two dead trees flank this central oak, like sharp counterpoints. The one to the far left of the painting diagonally points up and out of the frame, its splintered trunk reflecting light. The one to the right tilts up to the sky, and its trunk, speckled with rich greens, seems to get lost in the foliage of the central oak. Only upon closer inspection does one see that the top of the trunk near the top edge of the painting is also fractured. The contrast between the living and dead trees side by side evokes the cycle of life. The canopy of leaves covers three quarters of the painting. It’s rendered in a wide range of greens, from dark forest greens and rich shades of emerald to yellowish olive hues and undertones of umber brown. To the upper right, however, a patch of gray sky hints at the cloudy weather. While closer to the horizon line, which sits about a third of the way up the canvas, clouds break open to let the sunlight shine through. Just beneath this area in the right foreground, barely visible, are a single herdsman and a group of cattle coming around the bend and making their way to a body of water. The bright, opaque reflection of the pond opens up the dark foreground. The still water reflects the light, clouds, and even a couple of cows that have entered the pond to drink some water. The diminutive size of the cows imbues the trees, the real protagonists, with even more grandeur.

Théodore Rousseau was dedicated to painting the French landscape, returning again and again to the forest of Fontainebleau as a primary source of inspiration. He grounded his practice in empirical observation and close engagement with nature. Beginning in 1836, he spent his summers drawing and painting in the French countryside. He would retreat to Paris in the winter months. By 1847, he bought a house in the small town of Barbizon, just at the edge of the forest of Fontainebleau, and he remained there for the rest of his life.

Rousseau’s work suggests a longing for the slow way of life he associated with rural existence, at odds with the modern changes of his time. He was deeply drawn to the strength and quiet steadfastness of ancient trees, producing hundreds of sketches in oil, pencil, and crayon. The endurance of trees could be interpreted as an expression of resilience. Rousseau worked outdoors incessantly. Going against the standard training at the time, he grounded his artistic practice in a close engagement with the natural world. He painted and sketched directly from nature, en plein air, or in the open air, that is. He wasn’t simply gathering material for his studio paintings. Rather, his practice carried meaning. To draw or paint before a tree, or along the forest edge, was to enter into sustained attention: to stand, to look, to tune the senses, to breathe alongside the trees, and to remain long enough for the trees to reveal themselves, a kind of aesthetic meditation.

In this painting, the physical presence of the artist outdoors is felt through the immediacy of his brushwork. The freedom of the handling of paint complicates how we understand this painting, whether it’s a sketched or a finished work of art, or somewhere in between, an ébauche. He would have started this painting outdoors and enhanced it in his studio. Rousseau was experimental in his process. Brushstrokes of varying width and texture rhythmically cover the canvas. The surface is alive with movement.

Long before environmentalism had a name, Rousseau’s work reflected what has been termed ecological awareness, the growing realization that humanity does not stand apart from the natural world, but moves within as living co-presence. We are not outside the landscape, we belong to it. And with this in mind, practicing a grounding tree meditation helps us feel not only connected to our environment, but also centered and rooted in the present moment.

[Meditative music continues]

If you feel comfortable, I invite you to close your eyes, and if you would prefer to keep your eyes open, that’s okay, too. Try to lower your gaze, lower your lids to minimize visual distraction. Use this time to go inward.

And adopt a posture in your body that feels both relaxed yet alert. Sense into ease and comfort. Let’s begin again with a few deep breaths, grounding with each exhale.

So, [a] breath in. [inhales]

And a breath out. [exhales]

Take a deep breath in. [inhales]

And a deep breath out. [exhales]

One more inhale. [exhales]

And exhale. [exhales]

Now just let your breathing resume its natural rhythm. No need to force or extend anything here. Just let your body do what it does very naturally. Allow your body to breathe itself.

And I invite you to cultivate an awareness of your breath here. Noticing the way in which the breath moves in and out of the body. Notice your breath around your nostrils. Notice your breath around your chest. Notice your breath in your belly, soft and present.

And if your mind starts to wander, know that that’s completely natural. Your brain is doing its job. There’s no need to stop the thoughts or clear the mind. Rather, just notice those thoughts as they arise, and gently let them go and come back to your breath. Use your breath as your anchor.

[Silence]

Trees embody such strength and grace. Let’s explore what it feels like to be one of the trees in Rousseau’s painting. Sense into the surface upon which you are seated or standing. Feel yourself firmly planted here. Notice where your body makes contact with a surface. Feel the support of the earth beneath you. Feel your weight here and sense gravity. Be where your feet are. And imagine that your torso is like the trunk of a tree, upright with poise, standing still. Imagine that your arms are like branches and that your fingers are like leaves.

[Silence]

Gently lift the crown of your head up to the sky, gathering the sunshine. Notice the difference between the upward lift and the downward pull. With each breath, lifting and rooting.

Inhale, lift.

Exhale, root.

You can imagine that your branches also reach for the light.

Inhale, reaching.

Exhale, rooting.

Inhale, reaching.

Exhale, rooting.

Sense into the strength and grace of the tree within you. Be the tree. Feel the weight of your body. Feel your roots extending down beneath the earth’s surface. And notice where your roots make contact with other roots. Your root system connecting with other trees. Giving and receiving. Feel the reciprocity that exists just beneath the Earth’s surface. See yourself in this network of connection, a tree among other trees. Standing independent, yet interconnected, coexisting with life all around you.

And if your eyes are closed, I invite you to gently open them, coming back into the space that you’re in, bringing your awareness to your environment. Maybe there are some gentle movements or stretches that your body needs now. And keeping this imagery of the tree in mind, as we return to the world, let’s carry this sense of presence and connection with us.

And I want to see if we can find different opportunities to come into contact with trees throughout our day. Notice their shape. Pay attention to the colors and textures, the way that the light hits them, or how they grow. Try to come into physical contact with a tree. It’s good for you. Proven benefits of doing so include the release of feel-good hormones like oxytocin, serotonin, and dopamine, so it will lower stress and increase calm and help regulate your nervous system. Why not even hug a tree today? Use it as a reminder to be in the present moment and notice how it makes you feel.

Let’s close our practice today by returning to the breath with one more full, deep inhale. And sigh it out. [exhales] Thank you so much for joining me.

[Meditative music slowly fades out]