"Grez was an idyllic little place," wrote a Swedish artist in 1884, "offering subjects wherever you looked . . . the river with its watermills and little waterfalls, the sun on white walls, old men in clogs, old women in coifs, girls in the sunshine, hens and ducks, grazing cattle, groves, fields and woods."
From 1875 till the mid-1890s the small French village of Grez-sur-Loing drew young artists like a magnet. They came from England, Ireland, Sweden, Norway, Canada, America and even Japan. Writers such as Robert Louis Stevenson and August Strindberg came too, and in the long summer evenings these young Bohemians would play billiards, fall in love and debate their grand passion: art. For many it was a turning point in their lives.
This artist's colony is the subject of an exhibition now at the Fuchu Art Museum. It has taken nearly eight years to organize, and it is well worth a visit to this pleasant new museum in a park.