Engraving Forest of Fontainebleau: the Charlemagne and the Roland - Eugène Bléry

Interpretation engraved by Eugène Bléry (1805-1887).
This remarkable oak, felled by a storm on the night of February 17-18, 1925, was one of the most famous trees in the forest of Fontainebleau. It was also one of the oldest, with a circumference of more than six meters, i.e. about six centuries.
The Chablis du Charlemagne is located in the Réserve biologique intégrale u Nid de l'Aigle (Eagle's Nest). A chablis is a tree that is uprooted naturally, without human intervention, by the action of wind, lightning, the weight of snow or the fall of another tree. It can also be for reasons of its own, such as old age or illness.
He has inspired many artists of the "Ecole de Barbizon" such as Eugène Bléry. In the 19th century, this name brought together the followers of an outdoor pictorial practice. Inspired by the romanticism of the old forests of Fontainebleau, they often lived in the adjoining village of Barbizon. They are the precursors of the Impressionists.
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