Barbizon School artists and their work played a crucial role in protecting the Forest of Fontainebleau as one of the first nature reserves in the world. Artists affiliated with the school petitioned against the planting of softwoods like pine for wood harvesting, asserting that the plantings distorted the natural landscape. They also opposed the cutting of hardwood trees, such as beech and oak, and successfully organized to change existing forest management policies. Eventually, the cutting of hardwood trees was suspended. Rather than representing idealized forest views, these four prints are portraits that capture the character of specific beech and oak trees in the Forest. Such detailed and heroicized depictions of individual trees reflect the artists’ deep commitment to nature and their protest against the private commercial interests that valued the new pine growth over the ancient hardwood trees.