Woodland Interior

Diaz de la Peña began his artistic career as a porcelain painter. He quickly made the acquaintance of fellow painters Jules Dupré, Constant Troyon, Honoré Daumier, Théodore Rousseau, and Paul Huet. By the 1830s, the artist was exhibiting at the official Salon in Paris and by 1835 he was painting in the Forest of Fontainebleau.

The artist executed compositions using the somber tones of Dutch 17th century landscapes, lightening them with subtle contrast of light and dark and an effect of transparency. Diaz often reused compositions, with the center of the foreground occupied by a clearing or a pond, framed by rows of trees that recede into the distance, directing the eye from the center of the picture toward secondary gleams of light.