EVOLUTION OF LANDSCAPE PAINTING- IMPRESSIONISM TO CONTEMPORARY

The word “landscape” comes from the Dutch word "Landschap", which means the patch of the ground describing any painting drawing or any other technique used or whose main subject is to draw the scenery containing mountains, forests, rivers, or seascape. Landscape painting in layman language is the depiction of Natural Scenery. 

Timeline of the landscape painting
The tradition of landscape painting can be traced back to traditional Chinese painting during the 6th century, identified as Shan Shui, and is still popular to this day. In the Western tradition landscape painting as a genre developed from the Renaissance movement. Giovanni Bellini’s expressive landscapes are as much the main character of s paintings as are the religious subjects that influenced 15th-century Italian art. Created for sophisticated patrons, Bellini’s works present characters and symbols from familiar sacred stories. With the work of Giorgione, who was one of Bellini's students, the Venetian High Renaissance truly began. Although he died very young, Giorgione's influence was extensive and impactful. He introduced new subjects such as mythological scenes and pastorals with elusive meaning. To a revolutionary stretch, the mood is the primary "subject" of his works. He used light and shadow and a soft atmosphere to merge landscape and figures. For Giorgione, more than any artist before him, the landscape became an end in itself.

The upliftment of landscape painting began following the Renaissance era, in the 16th century, with artists drawing landscapes that included pictures purely as a setting for human activity. The genre reached new heights at this point due to the Dutch and Flemish schools' artistic innovation with artists like Pieter Bruegel, Joachim Patenir, Albrecht Durer. 

Artists like Pieter Bruegel, who was one of the most famous painters of the Flemish school, was known for his detailed landscapes depicting peasant life. His artworks have inspired many, including the renowned painter Peter Rubens and many Flemish painters in the following century. One of his famous works, Landscape with the Fall of Icarus (1558) depicts a religious or mythological story. Bruegel depicts the boisterous activities of a country fair and a folk play, respectively, paying particularly close attention to the worn costumes and broad, emphatic gestures of the celebrants . He had attentive attentive observation of the village sittings, far from re-creating everyday life. The powerful compositions, brilliantly organized and controlled, reflect a sophisticated artistic design. His use of landscape defies simple interpretation. The painting Landscape with the Fall of Icarus is a true masterpiece, urrounded by mystery, and numerous questions which remain unresolved, particularly regarding its attribution. The painting, therefore, continues to exert a lasting fascination. 

The term “classical” appeared in the seventeenth century. Classicism is the term used to define the arts and culture of the ancient civilizations of Greece and the Roman Empire. A source of inspiration that has been popular since the Renaissance era until the 19th and 20th centuries.

Nicolas Poussin is one of the most well-known classically-inspired artists. He is considered an important representative of the French Baroque. In his famous painting, Landscape with a Calm, he tried to capture in his composition every single detail to impact the viewers. Poussin’s landscape is usually created with a graceful background for a group of figures but later landscapes played an important role in developing a unique style, as it focuses on figures, creating stories that were taken from the bible, mythology, and literature.

Claude Lorrain is a french artist who is known for one of the greatest ideal landscape paintings. His inspiration is the countryside around Rome. Working outdoors from detailed observation, and blending classical Idealism with naturalistic detail he produced work that could rival the beauty of nature itself.

Throughout Europe, Poussin and Claude Lorrain established landscape as an honourable genre but it never matched its importance. Due to slow recognition, it was not considered a match for other genres, such as history painting or portraiture. 

In 18th century Europe, the Rococo style became widespread in painting, sculpture, decorative arts, and interior design. It was influenced by the Venetian School's use of color, Arcadian landscapes, erotic subjects, and intense use of dramatic scenes which enhanced more playfulness in their works. Jean-Antoine Watteau was the innovative artist who extended the Rococo period beyond decorative arts onto the canvas. Watteau's unique and creative compositions’ style was based on the combination of asymmetrical design and brightly colored landscapes which were painted idyllic and with happy scenes. Most of his art focuses on the cheerfulness of people dancing around and enjoying themselves in a beautiful setting. All this imagery gave birth to a new genre called fêtes galantes, which were scenes of courtship parties.

Romanticism was the defining style in art and literature of the late 18th and 19th centuries. A movement that draws attention to imagination and emotions. Romanticism is a rejection of the rule of balance, idealization, calm, harmony, and rationality that characterized Classicism in general and particularly Neoclassicism in the late 18th-century. One of the main artists of the Romantic movement was the painter Caspar David Friedrich who changed the face of landscape paintings with his intense and emotional focus on nature and became a key member of the Romantic Movement.

Friedrich elaborated his style and developed his techniques while painting Two Men Contemplating the Moon. The symbolism is one of the strongest points of his painting, which Friedrich implemented with interesting lighting effects and color use.

In the 19th century, a rebel art movement brought a major change in Western art. The Impressionist movement marked the beginning of the modern era in art. The best way for the artists to get recognition was to exhibit their work at the annual Salon des Beaux-Arts or "Salon de Paris", which was organized by the Fine Arts Academy. Being showcased during this event could make or break a career. The artists were eager to get the public’s appreciation and to gain favorable reviews. 

Being at first rejected by the establishment, a small group of Impressionist artists held an exhibition with their latest works. Approaching painting in a similar way, the group came together with open compositions depicting the study of light with its changing qualities. Their innovation was the departure from studio practice, replaced by painting outdoors. The freshness and the immediacy in Claude Monet, Alfred Sisley, and Paul Cezanne’s work astounded the public. The art critic Louis Leroy coined the name Impressionism referring to Monet's painting Impression: Sunrise. He gave rise to the sarcastic comment: "an exhibition of impressionists".
In today's time, Impressionist paintings are remarkably the most popular and loved by the public from a modern art museum collection. The modern lifestyle and the way people spent time in Parisian cafés, bars, and theatres were the popular subjects for Monet, Renoir, and Degas in late 19th-century Paris.

 Soon after the group’s exhibition, the public accepted the term "Impressionism". The Impressionists were interested in representing the form as the naked eye sees it and in capturing the natural effect of light. Some younger artists who were in favor of Impressionists started imitating them. They exhibited together around eight times between 1874 and 1886. 

Later, in the 1880s, Post-Impressionist artists became concerned with the three-dimensional nature of space, objects, and their representation on canvas. Qualities of line, pattern, color, and symbolic subject matter were the main concepts for this artistic movement. 

The impressionists were the true masters of painting. The task was to paint from “Nature”, to make use of the discoveries of the impressionist’s masters, and yet to capture the sense of order and necessity that distinguished the art of Poussin. The impressionists had given up mixing the pigment on the palate and had applied them separately onto the canvas in small dabs and dashes to render the flickering reflections of an “open dash air” scene. The techniques of the Impressionists focused more on style rather than the subject matter. They aimed to hold on to the contemporary art world, artists with distinct styles in art practices—including Paul Cézanne, Paul Gauguin, Vincent van Gogh, Georges Seurat, Henri Toulouse-Lautrec, and Henri Rousseau.

Like the Impressionists, the Post-Impressionists showed their artwork to the public through exhibitions across Paris. In 1910 the art critic, curator, and historian Roger Fry coined the term "Post-Impressionism" with the show, Manet and the Post-Impressionists. Fry believed that the beauty of art is inherently rooted in perception: "Art is an expression and stimulus to the imaginative life rather than a copy of actual life". In An Essay in Aesthetics Fry explains: "Art appreciates emotion in and for itself. The artist is constantly observant of his surroundings and the least affected by their intrinsic aesthetic value. As he contemplates a particular field of vision, the aesthetically chaotic and accidental conjunction of forms and colors begin to crystallize into a harmony." These theories help us understand the commonality of these artists.

The style of landscape painting flourished around the turn of the 20th century in France. Fauvism and Expressionism were introduced with harsh colors and flat surfaces (Fauvism) and emotionally disturbing forms. As the artist in fauvism painted a strong expressive reaction to the subjects spontaneously, expressing with bold brushstrokes and impressive colors. The colors did not have to be true to nature, necessarily. They could be changed to show emotions. Two influential artists of that time were Henri Matisse and Paul Signac. Expressionism came "from within," which is a reflection of the artist's feelings rather than a portrayal of a scene.
Lastly, Contemporary art refers to art that is produced in today’s time which can be named- painting, sculpture, photography, installation, performance, and video art. And when we talk about the landscape in modern and contemporary art wouldn’t be complete without mentioning David Hockney’s art. 

David Hockney has gained more popularity than any other British artist of this century. Hockney was one of the first artists to use acrylic paint extensively, which was at that time a relatively new artistic medium. He used acrylic paints to depict the hot, dry landscapes of California. He used to work in a vertical plan by stapling the canvas to his studio wall. He said in his autobiography, "I love the idea first of all of the painting like Leonardo, all his studies of water, swirling things. And I loved the idea of painting this thing that lasts for two seconds: it takes me two weeks to paint this event that lasts for two seconds." 

Hockney’s artistic career is mostly connected with the Pop art movement. Recently, he has been widely experimenting with various methodologies for reinventing the landscape genre, including watercolors, photo collages. David Hockney in his recent exhibit “ The Arrival of Spring, Normandy 2020” show at the Royal Academy of Arts 23. He travelled to france with the intension to capture the spring in the rural landscape of normandy. He wanted to observe the richness of the spring to capture the change in the plant and the light. He stared to work in the beginning of the coronavious pandemic when much of the world wenr into the state of lockdown where he focus on the emerging of the spring as a celebration of the joy of natural world.

In today’s time, we can see the development of the landscape genre. Landscape as an art genre is forever since it offers so many options for contemporary artists to experiment with new media and to reflect on human nature and our troubled relation with Mother Nature.
Discover some contemporary landscapes on my website Landscape Paintings.