Pierre Etienne Theodore Rousseau was born on April 15, 1812. His parents were part of the rising successful merchant class, who recognized their son's interest in nature and art and did their best to encourage it. As a young boy, Rousseau spent a great deal of time in the Bois de Boulogne, and at the age of thirteen was sent to the country, in the Franche Comte, where he sketched his surroundings at every opportunity. On his return to Paris a year later, his work showed such improvement and promise that his parents allowed him to choose painting as his profession. Encouraged by his family, Rousseau began studying in earnest, primarily at the studio of Jean Charles Joseph Remond. Even at this early age, Rousseau made frequent excursions in and around Paris including Fontainebleau. Like many Barbizon artists, Rousseau spent a great deal of time in the Louvre copying the Dutch 17th century landscape artists. He also exhibited his first painting at the Salon of 1831. This painting, a landscape from his recent trip to the Avergne, hung high on the wall of the Salon and received only slight and scattered praise. Rousseau spent the next year on the Normandy Coast with several other artists, including Paul Huet, the predominant landscape artist of the time. Huet exerted a strong influence on Rousseau, and encouraged his young pupil to draw directly from nature.