Master of Frankfurt

14th, 15th and 16th Centuries

The depiction of landscape in art has its roots in Greek and Roman times, with murals of landscapes painted on the walls of expensive villas. However, it was in the Renaissance when landscape gained in popularity. The ‘Classical’ vision of the land as a place for pleasure was reborn and people looked at the landscape with renewed interest.

Landscape painting was not produced in its own right at this time with early Renaissance painters presenting landscape as a backdrop to religious scenes and portraits.

As landscapes became more accurately portrayed, it became easier to integrate figures within them to be shown in proportion to the rest of the picture. Artists also started to use colours and forms in the background that mirrored the mood and the figures of the events depicted in their religious and mythological paintings.

By the 17th century there were two main centres of landscape painting in Europe: Italy, where landscape did not enjoy high status and paintings of landscapes tended to be idealised and classical, and the Netherlands.

In the Netherlands, great political changes for the country were reflected in its artwork when the Northern Netherlands won independence from Spain. People no longer wanted Catholic artworks linked to Spanish rule and many artists turned to painting the flat, recognisable landscape of the Dutch Republic, which reflected national pride.

By the late 17th century, many landscapes in the Netherlands were deeply influenced by the traditions and landscape of Italy in their use of light and colour

Regatta on the Grand Canal, c.1735

The 18th century 'Grand Tour' involved many rich young men (and sometimes women) touring Europe, particularly Italy, visiting places famed for their art and architecture. They would often buy souvenirs, such as capricci (imaginary paintings depicting ruined or intact architecture in picturesque settings) and other landscapes. Canaletto was one of the most popular artists with those tourists, who was famed for his depictions of Venice.

France and Britain became the new centres of landscape art. In France, Watteau invented what is known as the 'Fête Galante', which depicted pastoral landscapes with figures enjoying picnics and walks in the countryside. In England, Gainsborough would make preparatory sketches from nature before painting the final scenes in his studio and even built miniature models of his landscapes in order to paint them with more accuracy.

View at Ornans, 1864

One of the most important developments in the history of landscape was the invention of photography. Artists were no longer required to paint faithful, topographical depictions of the land and this led to greater freedom to interpret the landscape.

New artists' equipment led to a shift to painting outside. 19th-century artists such as Courbet and Boudin painted spontaneous pictures in the open air. By the latter half of the 19th century, influenced by Boudin and others, the Impressionists were causing a stir by exhibiting paintings that looked unfinished.

In the modern period, landscape has come to mean many things as artists embrace new media in addition to the more traditional media to create environments using light and colour.

As the world becomes more built up, urban landscapes also feature more heavily as well as artwork which reflects the plight of the landscape in the face of industrialisation and population growth.