Landscape Painting: A Brief History

Beginning in ancient times, the practice of landscape declined sharply after the fall of Rome; landscapes were seen as purely depictions of scenes from the bible until the 16th century when the Renaissance sparked an interest in the natural world. Although it was not once popular everywhere, the Netherlands was one of the first regions in which landscape paintings were popular by on their own without a biblical or historical connotation otherwise. An example of a landscape painting from the netherlands comes from Jacob Van Ruisdael’s Bridge with a Sluice painted in 1648-1649.

Shortly after this was the birth of the Classical Landscape in the 17th century which “sought to illustrate an ideal landscape recalling Arcadia, a legendary place in ancient Greece known for its quiet pastoral beauty”. After this period, in which such works as Landscape with a Calm by Nicolas Poussin (1650–1651) were produced, came the acceptance of the art form in the academy. This acceptance was aided by Pierre-Henri de Valenciennes who published a book on landscape painting and who attempted to convince the academy to accept landscapes as a legitimate art form.

As time progressed landscapes began to become less realistic and more stylized, just as in Irises by Vincent van Gogh (1889). Around this time period also photography was beginning to be introduced which gave artists another realm of options for the composition of their pieces. The acceptance of photography as a legitimate art form only strengthened its use to take landscape shots and, as the 20th century progressed, more and more artists turned towards the lense to capture not only natural landscapes, but city-scapes and cultural-scapes as well.



Source: https://www.getty.edu/education/teachers/classroom_resources/curricula/landscapes/background1.html