What is landscape? History of the development of landscape as a genre of fine art Epic landscape paintings by famous artists

(from the French paysage - country, locality) - a genre of fine art in which the main subject of the image is nature.
Landscape appeared as an independent genre already in the 6th century in Chinese art. The traditions of Chinese landscape painting had a great influence on Japanese art.
In Europe the landscape is like separate genre appeared much later than in China and Japan. During the Middle Ages, when only religious compositions had the right to exist, the landscape was interpreted by painters as an image of the characters’ habitat.
Gradually, landscape went beyond other artistic genres. This was facilitated by the development easel painting. Masters played a major role in the creation of the landscape genre Venetian school at the beginning of the 16th century
In Russian art, landscape as a genre of painting appeared at the end of the 18th century. Semyon Shchedrin (1745-1804) is considered to be the founder of Russian landscape.
The rise of landscape painting was marked by the development of the plein air landscape, associated with the invention in the 19th century of the method of producing tube paints.

The term " scenery"in Russian comes from the French "paysage" - "pays" - "country", "locality". For example, in English, the term "landscape" comes from the Dutch word "landschap", which originally meant "area", "piece of land", but acquired the meaning as "a picture of a natural landscape" in the early 1500s. The development of this term in the Netherlands was logical, because this country became one of the first places where popular genre for painters. At this time, Protestantism was growing middle class, its representatives made new demands on objects of art. It was the landscape that helped satisfy these needs.

But this genre still needed to gain recognition from the authoritative art academies of Italy and France. Historical painting on classical, religious, mythological and allegorical themes prevailed over all others. Portraits, genre paintings, still lifes, and landscapes were at a lower level in the “hierarchy” of genres. Even when landscape became a more or less independent genre in the 17th century, it was still used as a secondary subject for biblical, mythological or historical scenes.

XVII century is considered the period of birth of the classical landscape. The paintings of this period show the influence of antiquity and the desire to depict an ideal landscape reminiscent of Arcadia - a legendary place in Ancient Greece, known for its quiet pastoral beauty, which was written about by the Roman poet Virgil.

In a classic landscape, all objects should be in positions where each tree, stone or animal should create a harmonious, balanced and timeless impression. The classical landscape was improved by the French artists Nicolas Poussin and Claude Lorrain. Both artists spent most of their artistic lives in Rome, drawing inspiration from the Roman countryside. Italy at that time was the favorite place to work for many artists. Poussin, who from an early age devoted his work to history painting, later came to the conclusion that landscape can evoke the same strong emotions as human drama in history painting. From this point on, he worked to give the landscape genre a higher status.

Jacob van Ruisdael. River Bank (1649)

Nicolas Poussin. Landscape with Two Nymphs and a Snake (c. 1659)

Claude Lorrain. Landscape with the Abduction of Europa by Jupiter (between 1615 and 1682)

In the 18th century Italy continued to be a source of inspiration for landscape painters, while France and England became new centers landscape art. But the ideals of the 17th century. classical Dutch and Italian landscapes were preserved. Although landscapes were gaining popularity, European academies still did not give of great importance this genre. In particular, the Royal Academy in France is an incredibly powerful organization that sets standards for the training of painters and the choice of themes for their work.

Pierre-Henri de Valenciennes was able to turn the situation around at the end of the 18th century. Like Nicolas Poussin, he worked to convince the Academy and his contemporaries of the merits of landscape painting. In 1800, he published a book on the subject of landscape painting, Eléments de perspective practique (literally, “Essentials of Perspective Practice”). The book emphasized the importance of the "historical landscape", which should be based on the study of real nature. The subsequent generation of French landscape painters benefited from Valenciennes' efforts. Among them was Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot, whose development as an artist was largely influenced by the historical landscapes of Valenciennes and travels in Italy.

Pierre-Henri de Valenciennes. Ulysses begs for help to Nausicaä (1790)

Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot. Recollection of Morthefontaine (1864)

XIX century became a new stage in the development of landscape gardening art. The Industrial Revolution changed the traditions of rural life. Across Europe and North America, the landscape took on a new status. Representatives of the Barbizon School, such as Théodore Rousseau, Charles-François Daubigny and others, moved away from idealized, classical landscapes and focused on painting from life, known as plein air painting. In the 19th century Landscape photography was born, which significantly influenced the choice of landscape compositions.

Theodore Rousseau. Market in Normandy (1845-1848)

Charles-Francois Daubigny. Harvest (1851)

French painter Gustave Courbet pushed the boundaries of landscape painting even further. Gustave Courbet's radical painting methods and independent spirit paved the way for the next generation of Impressionist artists. Artists such as Claude Oscar Monet, Camille Pissarro, Auguste Renoir, Alfred Sisley and many others devoted most of their work to plein air painting. The painting of Gustave Courbet, his colors and the structure of the landscape significantly influenced the works of Paul Cézanne and Vincent van Gogh, as well as many artists of the 20th century.

Gustave Courbet. Storm Wave (1869)

Claude Oscar Monet. Boulevard of the Capuchins (1873)

Camille Pissarro. The sound of a plum tree. Eragni (1894)

Auguste Renoir. Palm Tree (1902)

Alfred Sisley. Bridge at Villeneuve-la-Garenne (1872)

Paul Cezanne. Swimming pool at Jas de Bouffan (1876)

Vincent van Gogh. Pink peach tree. Arles (1888)

At the beginning of the 20th century. landscape has ceased to be just a genre in fine art. Once photography gained recognition as an art form, artists were quick to take advantage of it. Also, the artists, in their conceptual manner, were able to convey the dangers of industrialization, the threat of global destruction and environmental disasters. In the second half of the 20th century. the definition of landscape included the concept of urban, cultural, industrial landscapes and landscape architecture. Landscape photography continues to develop. Today, landscape is a way to convey an attitude towards the nature that surrounds us, the place where we live, and the human impact on the planet.

The most important and oldest type of landscape is the image of pristine nature and countryside. This is the original understanding of the French word “paysage” and the German “Landschaft” (image of a village, image of the land), which over three centuries have become firmly rooted in our language. The industrial landscape, which emerged at the end of the 18th - beginning of the 19th centuries, as well as the urban landscape constitute separate directions in the development of landscape painting.

IN medieval Europe The art of depicting nature experienced a certain decline for a long time. Depicting the grape harvest, the Garden of Eden or the end of the flood, the medieval European artist limited himself to only decorative designation of nature, not caring about any visual similarity to the natural world (V.N. Stasevich’s book “Landscape. Picture and Reality”).

The achievements of ancient realism, which came into medieval painting, seem to fade away and degenerate into decorative motifs or extremely conventional designations of the scene of action. This is especially typical for the art of Byzantium. In the 14th century, a certain turn towards realism was noticeable in the art of this country. Accordingly, the image of nature takes on a more specific character.

The influence of Byzantine art spread to Italy and the part of the European continent north of the Alps. Related principles of depicting trees, mountains and other elements of nature are found in Western European art, including in frescoes by artists of the Italian Trecento - the period preceding the Renaissance.

Landscapes in European miniature of the 15th century are lyrical images of places familiar to the artist, often very accurately conveying the appearance of a particular landscape and architectural structures.

Since the early Renaissance, artists have been occupied with issues of linear and aerial perspective. Perspective images are used even in relief, which acquires a picturesque character that is not typical for sculpture. Interest in real space gave impetus to the discovery of the laws of perspective

In the 17th century, Holland experienced a surge of spiritual renewal. In this country, genres of art such as still life and landscape are becoming widespread, which presuppose the viewer's ability to enjoy art without religious, historical or heroic reminiscences. Here, for the first time, a realistic landscape as an image of a specific area received wide recognition. Here the sea becomes the hero of the paintings. After all, it was a real breadwinner for the country of sailors and fishermen.

The seascapes of Adrian van Velde are so excellent in their accuracy of depiction of nature, in their sense of light and color, that later art critics began to wonder whether the artist painted his paintings from life.

No less significant are the artistic merits of the works of Albert Cuyp, Jan van Goyen, and Solomon van Ruisdael.

Dutch masters of the mid-century were characterized by painting in similar tones, in brownish-silver or yellowish-silver tones. These tones attracted artists with the opportunity to convey the moisture-saturated air of Holland (Meindert Gobbema, Philipp Wouwerman, Claes Berchem, etc.). Artists loved to paint cloudy skies, when the dim light of the sun penetrates through a thin layer of clouds and evenly envelops nature.

Vermeer's landscape of Delft "View of Delft" can be called real pearls of painting.

But Dutch landscape painters did not limit themselves to a reliable “portrait” of their native land. There were “Italianist” or “novelist” artists who painted Italian landscapes or followed the trends of the “composed” Italian landscape (KlasBerchem, Jan Asseleym, Jan Bot, etc.). A major master of the romantic style was Hercules Seghers, who was followed in his interpretation of nature by Jacob van Ruisdael and Harmenswan Rein Rembrandt. In the landscapes of these artists, Dutch realism is combined with a romantic beginning.

Landscape of Baroque and Classicism. A different attitude towards the image of nature is observed in the Flemish artist Peter Paul Rubens. Rubens' art was formed under strong influence baroque. Baroque is an artistic movement prone to exaggeration, in which a realistic attitude to the objective world coexists freely with fiction. It originated in Italy and spread throughout Europe.

An exceptionally talented artist, Rubens became the head of the Flemish school, and transferred the principles of Baroque to the depiction of nature. When in your later works the artist turned to the image of Flemish nature, he painted a heroic, ideal, collective image. Hence the characteristic panoramic scope of his canvases, coming from the traditions of the 16th century.

But the landscape of the 17th century is not only Holland and Flanders. This genre received a characteristic solution in the art of France, in particular in the works of Nicolas Poussin, Claude Jelle, and Claude Lorrain. The landscapes of Poussin and Lorrain have all the necessary signs of classicism: orderly balance, thoughtful distribution of volumes, tonal and pictorial masses of the composition, fragments of antique columns, statues, and even entire structures reminiscent of ancient architecture, necessary from the point of view of classicism. There are mythological and biblical motifs, borrowed from literary monuments of the ancient world and the Middle Ages and introduced into the landscape as staffage to revitalize it and provide semantic orientation.

The classical landscape is called “historical” for its connection with scenes from ancient and medieval history. Unlike the baroque landscape with its elemental heroism, the classic one has the harmony and clarity of nature. A classical landscape is a composed landscape, but composed on the basis of artistic exploration of reality.

In France by the 30s XIX century A school of artists - creators of the national landscape - is emerging. Georges Michel was one of the first to turn to the image of national nature. The nature of “everyday” France, with its birches and poplars, became the theme of Camille Corot’s paintings. He loved to paint the transitional states of evening and morning, avoiding bright contrasts.

A group of Corot's contemporaries - Theodore Rousseau, Leon Dupre, Charles-François Daubigny, Constant Troyon, Narcisse Diaz de la Pena, who were not satisfied with the rational system of the academic landscape - decided on an experiment reminiscent of Constable's experiment. They began to paint the groves, fields, and creeks surrounding Paris. Sometimes they worked together, gathering in the village of Barbizon with Theodore Rousseau. The result of their efforts was a natural, life-true composition of the landscape.

The 20th century introduced something completely new into the history of landscape, breaking with the centuries-old traditions of depicting nature. This is cubism, the first representatives of which were the French artists Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso. Cubism is based on a purely speculative constructive analysis of forms, dividing them into arbitrarily assumed elements or absolutizing them geometric meaning. Cubist landscapes are perhaps less connected with the landscape of reality than the landscapes of past centuries.

In Russia, the 19th century in landscape art began with the gradual conquest of realistic positions. As in Europe, this was expressed in the development of plein air and the national motif. At the beginning of the century, many traditions of classical landscape were still preserved. Russian artists went to Italy for landscapes.

However, the artists of Sylvester Shchedrin’s generation were not satisfied with the static scheme of the classic landscape-scenery with its nameless trees. Trying to convey the life of nature, they introduce romantic lighting effects into their works, move away from the “scene” composition and brown color, and strive to capture sunlight and the specific character of nature.

Alexander Andreevich Ivanov made a colossal step in this direction. His paintings are characterized by purity and naturalness of color, richness of tonal and color relationships. Ivanov, like his other contemporaries, was attracted to nature by signs of the eternal, rather than the transitory.

The epic calm of the ideal image prevails even in those cases when Russian artists took the national landscape as a basis and sought to artlessly depict their native nature as it is. These are the landscapes of A.G. Venetsianov, his students G.V. Soroki, I.S. Krylov and other pioneers of the national Russian landscape, who saw the scope and beauty of the “nondescript” Russian nature.

Among these artists, the original phenomenon was represented by the brothers G.G. and I.G. Chernetsovs, the first artists of the Volga. Intending to paint a panorama of both banks of the river, they traveled from Rybinsk to Astrakhan on a special barge and created many original sketches and sketches. One of them is “View of the Syukeevsky Mountains on the Volga in the Kazan Province.”

The real systematic artistic exploration of Russian nature began in the second half of the 19th century, in the work of artists of the 60s. Russian nature, discreet and “not ideal” - swampy lowlands, slushy mudflats, monotonous flatness - became the main character in the landscapes of the Wanderers. Russian artists finally “discovered” their homeland and stopped going to Italy for beauty. They discovered the beauty of the natural manifestation of life and lost the need to search for an “ideal” nature.”

Efim Volkov painted mainly landscapes of northern and central Russia: as the subject of his paintings, he chose not beautiful “landscapes”, but modest corners of the nature of the Russian North, and in them he tried to notice and convey their inherent poetry and charm. He owns many paintings on the theme of a swamp shrouded in foggy haze: “Swamp in Autumn” (1871), “Evening” (1877), “Marsh Swamp” (1878), “Autumn” (1890), “Foggy Morning” (1881), “Landscape with a Swamp” (1898), “Swamp” (1902) and many others. Contemporaries called Efim Volkov “the poet of Russian autumn and Russian fogs.”

In the mid-19th century, the idealizing aesthetics of romanticism and classicism began to become a thing of the past. The national landscape begins to acquire leading importance in Russian art.

The very concept of “national landscape” presupposes a “portrait” of a certain geographically specific nature, characteristic of Holland, France or England. For Russian artists, central Russia became such a landscape for a long time. But, unlike the Europeans, Russian masters often invested social meaning into national motifs.

The nature of the Russian landscape was influenced by the principles of critical realism. Sorrowful motifs are inherent in images of nature not only in the paintings of V.G. Perov (“Seeing Off the Dead Man”) or I.M. Pryanishnikov’s “Empty”, where the landscape serves as an accompaniment to the depiction of the negative sides of Russian life.

Characteristic of the Russian national landscape is the attraction to the epic, in a sense ideal image Russian land, glorious for its forest wealth, wide fields and mighty rivers (I.I. Shishkin).

The beginning of the lyrical Russian landscape is usually associated with the work of A.K. Savrasov and his well-known painting “The Rooks Have Arrived”. At the same time, in other works of Savrasov - “Country Road” or “Rye” - the spirit of romanticism is alive.

The dynamic landscapes of the talented artist F.A. are imbued with a romantic feeling. Vasilyeva. In the film “Swamp in the Forest. Autumn".

Vasiliev’s teacher I.I. set himself a different task. Shishkin. Shishkin believed that “a painting from life should be without imagination.” Shishkin's sunny paintings are not devoid of poetry, a sense of the epic grandeur of nature.

A.I. Kuindzhi, an epic-romantic artist, believed that an artist should paint a landscape “by heart,” relying entirely on creative imagination. With a complete impression of naturalness, his landscapes are distinguished by thoughtful balance. Often the artist introduces an almost stereoscopic image of three-dimensional details in the foreground into the picture. They serve to further emphasize the illusion and scope of space.

Less common in Russian art seascape. However, almost every major Russian artist painted the sea. I.K. Aivazovsky went through a long creative path from the romantic to the realistically convincing poem “The Black Sea”, or the magnificent “Waves”. Without overtly romantic effects, A.P. wrote his “water” landscapes convincingly and truthfully. Bogolyubov.

SCENERY- this is a word that denotes, in addition to the general appearance of the area and descriptions of nature in literature, one of the genres of fine art. The theme of the landscape is terrain (from the French landscape - “terrain”, “country”), the environment, natural or man-made nature (the earth with its landscapes, views of mountains, rivers, fields, forests), city and countryside. Accordingly, natural, rural and urban (architectural, industrial, etc.) landscapes are distinguished. In the natural one, a seascape is distinguished (“ marina”, and artists depicting the sea are called “marine painters”) and cosmic, astral - the image of celestial space, stars and planets. Occupies a special place in the city landscape veduta – documented accurate image. From the point of view of time, they distinguish between modern, historical (incl. ruin– ruins of archaeological or historical sites and monuments) and futurological (pictures of the future world) landscapes.

In a narrow and strict sense, one should distinguish between landscape and landscape image. A landscape is a “portrait” image of a natural view, of what is, what really exists. It is like a pictorial or graphic “photo image”. It is individual and unique, it can be corrected, deformed, but it cannot be invented or composed. In contrast, a landscape image is any landscape views created using the imagination. The term "landscape" usually means both.

Landscape is not just an image, but always artistic image natural and urban environment, its specific interpretation, which is expressed in historically changing styles landscape art.

Each style - be it a classic, baroque, romantic, realistic, modernist landscape - has its own philosophy, aesthetics And poetics landscape image.

At the center of the philosophy of landscape is the question of the relationship of man to the environment - nature and the city, and the relationship of the environment to man. These relationships can be interpreted as harmonious or disharmonious. For example, Levitan in the landscape evening call, evening Bell creates an image in which the bright joy of nature and the blissful peace of mind life and feelings of people. On the contrary, in the philosophical and symbolic landscape ( Above eternal peace ) the artist, wanting to answer the question about the relationship between man and nature, about the meaning of life, contrasts the eternal and powerful forces of nature with the weak and short-lived human life.

The philosophical worldview interpretation of the image determines its aesthetics. IN Evening bells it's blissful, idyllic beauty, Above eternal peace solved in the style of monumental tragedy, sublime at its core.

The philosophy and aesthetics of landscape underlie its poetics and pictorial means. One can draw a certain analogy between the poetics of landscape and the poetics of literature. In both cases it is appropriate to distinguish between lyric, epic and drama. If in Evening bells we see lyrical a thing where aesthetic feelings are expressed as states of nature, then in the picture Above eternal peace for all its lyricism (as in any landscape), we feel the mournful epic narration character, imbued with tension and dramatic.

I. Levitan is a landscape painter of a realistic style, but the proposed method of interpreting his landscape work is applicable to other styles. For example, the classicist landscape as a whole professes a harmonious image, sublime and epic-narrative; romanticism seeks to reveal the internal contradictions of the relationship between man and the environment; it is characterized by a special romantic beauty and lyricism.

Landscape art reveals itself in almost all types and types of spatial arts. Among the types, preference is given to painting and graphics ( book illustrations etc.), but landscape images are also found in architecture, decorative arts (paintings on glass, porcelain, etc.) and scenography (decorative landscapes). Among the types of spatial arts, the palm belongs to easel works of painting and graphics, but monumental art (paintings and mosaics) and applied arts(folk arts and crafts, furniture, souvenirs, etc.) also use landscape forms.

The modernist movements of our time are characterized by a desire for deformation landscape image, which is often a bridge to the transition to abstractions, where the landscape loses its genre specificity.

Evgeniy Basin

A brief excursion into the history of the development of the landscape genre

Translated from french word"landscape" (paysage) means "nature". This is the name given to a genre in fine art whose main task is to reproduce natural or man-made nature.
In addition, the landscape is a concrete piece of art in painting or graphics, showing nature to the viewer. The “hero” of such a work is a natural or natural motif invented by the author.

"Seaport", 1st century, painting from Stabiae

Elements of landscape can already be found in rock paintings. In the Neolithic era, primitive craftsmen schematically depicted rivers or lakes, trees and boulders on the walls of caves. On the Tassilin-Ajer plateau in the Sahara, paintings with scenes of hunting and herd driving were discovered. Next to the figures of animals and humans, the ancient artist schematically drew a simple landscape, which does not make it possible to specify the location of the action. In the art of the Ancient East and Crete, the landscape motif is a fairly common detail in wall paintings. Thus, not far from the village of Beni Hassan in Middle Egypt, rock tombs of ancient Egyptian rulers who lived in the 21st-20th centuries BC were found. One of the many frescoes that covered the walls of the burial chambers depicts a wild cat hunting in dense thickets. Among the paintings in the halls of the famous Knossos Palace on the island of Crete, a painting was discovered that researchers called “Partridges in the Rocks.”
In the ancient Roman city of Stabia, destroyed, like Pompeii, during the eruption of Vesuvius, among other paintings found in one of the patrician houses, the fresco “Seaport” stands out, representing a real seascape.
Landscape appeared as an independent genre already in the 6th century in Chinese art. The paintings of medieval China very poetically convey the world around us. The spiritual and majestic nature in these works, executed mainly in ink on silk, appears as a vast universe that has no boundaries. The traditions of Chinese landscape painting had a great influence on Japanese art. Unfortunately, the scope of our publication does not allow us to talk in detail about the landscape painters of China and Japan - this is a topic for a separate book.
In Europe, landscape as a separate genre appeared much later than in China and Japan. During the Middle Ages, when only religious compositions had the right to exist, the landscape was interpreted by painters as an image of the characters’ habitat.

P. de Limburg. "The Month of March", 15th century, from the "Luxury Book of Hours of the Duke of Berry"

European miniaturists played a major role in the formation of landscape painting. In medieval France, at the courts of the Dukes of Burgundy and Berry in the 1410s, talented illustrators, the Limburg brothers, worked - the creators of charming miniatures for the Book of Hours of the Duke of Berry. These graceful and colorful drawings, telling of the seasons and associated field work and entertainment, show the viewer natural landscapes, executed with a masterful sense of perspective for the time.
A pronounced interest in landscape is noticeable in the painting of the Early Renaissance. And although artists are still very inept at conveying space, cluttering it with landscape elements that do not match each other in scale, many paintings testify to the painters’ desire to achieve a harmonious and holistic image of nature and man. This is the painting “Procession of the Magi” (first half of the 15th century, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York) by the Italian master Stefano di Giovanni, nicknamed Sasetta.
A significant step forward in the development of landscape painting was made by the 15th-century Swiss artist Konrad Witz, who showed a specific area in his composition on a religious subject - the shore of Lake Geneva.
Landscape motifs began to play a more important role during the High Renaissance. Many artists began to carefully study nature. Abandoning the usual construction of spatial plans in the form of scenes, a heap of details inconsistent in scale, they turned to scientific developments in the field of linear perspective. Now the landscape, presented as a whole picture, becomes the most important element of artistic plots. Thus, in altar compositions, which painters most often turned to, the landscape looks like a scene with human figures in the foreground.

Stefano di Giovanni. "Procession of the Magi", first half of the 15th century, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Despite such obvious progress, until the 16th century, artists included landscape details in their works only as a background for a religious scene, genre composition or portrait. The clearest example that is famous portrait Mona Lisa (c. 1503, Louvre, Paris), painted by Leonardo da Vinci.
The great painter with remarkable skill conveyed on his canvas the inextricable connection between man and nature, showed harmony and beauty, which for many centuries have made the viewer freeze in admiration in front of the La Gioconda.
Behind the young woman’s back, the boundless expanses of the universe open up: mountain peaks, forests, rivers and seas. This majestic landscape confirms the idea that human personality as multifaceted and complex as the natural world. But people are unable to comprehend the numerous secrets of the world around them, and this seems to confirm mysterious smile on the lips of Gioconda.

Leonardo da Vinci. "La Gioconda", approx. 1503, Louvre, Paris

Gradually, landscape went beyond other artistic genres. This was facilitated by the development of easel painting. In the small-sized paintings of the Dutch master I. Patiner and the German artist A. Altdorfer, the landscape begins to dominate the scenes shown in the foreground.
Many researchers consider Albrecht Altdorfer to be the founder of German landscape painting. Small human figures on his canvas “Forest Landscape with the Battle of St. George” (1510, Alte Pinakothek, Munich) are lost among the mighty tree trunks, the powerful crowns of which shield the ground from sunlight.
The later "Danube Landscape" (c. 1520-1525, Alte Pinakothek, Munich) and "Landscape with Castle Werth" (c. 1522-1530, Alte Pinakothek, Munich) indicate that now the image of nature is the main and probably , the only task artist.

A. Altdorfer. "Danube Landscape", ca. 1520-1525, Alte Pinakothek, Munich

Giorgione. "Thunderstorm", approx. 1506-1507, Galleria dell'Accademia, Venice

El Greco. "View of Toledo", 1610-1614, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Dark Day, 1565, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

In the 17th century, many national schools appeared, new genres and their varieties were formed. This time was very successful for the further development of the landscape genre.
Bruegel's traditions in the field of landscape painting were picked up by representatives of the Dutch school.
The Dutch bourgeois revolution (1566-1609) revived the country's cultural life and contributed to creative progress. The 17th century saw an extraordinary flowering of Dutch painting and all its genres, the most widespread of which was landscape painting.
Dutch landscape painters were able to capture on their canvases a comprehensive picture of the world in all its manifestations. Works by such artists as H. Averkamp, ​​E. van der Poel, J. Porcellis, S. de Vlieger, A.G. Cape, S. van Ruisdael and J. van Ruisdael, convey a person’s pride in his land, admiration for the beauty of the sea, native fields, forests and canals. Feeling sincere and boundless love to the surrounding world is felt in all the works of Dutch landscape painters.

Hendrik Averkamp_Winter Landscape, Pinacoteca Ambrosiana, Milan

Jan van Goyen, Fishermen

With subtle lyricism, he conveys roads with trees along the sides and alleys in the forest. wonderful artist Meindert Hobbema. The main feature of the landscapes of another Dutch master, Albert Cuyp, is the combination of landscape with the animalistic genre. His paintings delight the viewer with their rich and sonorous colors.

J. Wermeer of Delft. "Street", before 1660, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Jacob van Ruisdael - “The Mill at Wijk” (c.1670).

In 17th-century Holland, cosmopolitan landscapes were very popular, the authors of which specialized in creating imaginary landscapes in the Italian style. But it was not they, but the canvases with motifs of modest Dutch nature that made Dutch painting such a significant phenomenon in world culture.
The realistic art of Spain, Italy and France also played a role in the development of landscape painting. In the work of Diego Velazquez there are landscapes that reflect the subtle observation of the great Spanish master ("View of the Villa Medici", 1650-1651, Prado, Madrid). Velazquez masterfully conveys the freshness of greenery, warm shades of light sliding along the leaves of trees and high stone walls.
Velazquez's paintings testify to the birth of plein air painting: leaving the workshops, the artists went to work open air to better study nature.

D. Velazquez. "View of the Villa Medici", 1650-1651, Prado, Madrid

In the 17th century, the principles of creating an ideal landscape emerged in the art of classicism. Classicists interpreted nature as a world subject to the laws of reason.
The French painter Nicolas Poussin, who worked in Italy, became the creator of the heroic landscape. Poussin's paintings, showing the grandeur of the universe, are populated by mythological characters, heroes who educate the viewer sublime feelings. The artist, who believed that the main goal of art is the education of man, considered the order and rational structure of the world to be the main value. He wrote works with a balanced composition, clearly built spatial plans, and distributed colors according to strict rules. Poussin did not make the audience a participant in his paintings. Spectators looking at his landscapes had to be content with the role of contemplatives, enjoying the images and improving their minds.

N. Poussin. "Landscape with Polyphemus", Hermitage, St. Petersburg

P.P. Rubens. "Landscape with a Rainbow", Hermitage, St. Petersburg

P.P. Rubens. Landscape with Sten Castle. Circa 1635, National Gallery, London

Emotionally expressive landscapes that reflected Baroque traditions were created by the Italian master of the beginning XVII century Alessandro Magnasco. There is nothing idyllic in his paintings. Full of anxiety, they show the complexity of the world order. On the canvas “Seashore” the viewer sees a chaotic accumulation of details. Stormy sea waves beat against the shore, on which the artist placed many human figures. These are gypsies, robbers, peasants, hermits, traders.
It's hard to understand what these people are doing. The romantic landscape is equally mysterious: the agitated sea, trees with curved trunks, gloomy fortresses with towers and high gray cliffs on the horizon.
In the 18th century, the veduta, a type of landscape genre that emerged in Venetian painting, became widespread. It originates from the urban, or architectural, landscape, elements of which appeared in the art of the Middle Ages. Remarkable masters of vedata were Francesco Guardi, Antonio Canaletto, Bernardo Bellotto.
In the 18th century, landscape painting received further development in the art of France. Antoine Watteau, who was called the “painter of gallant holidays,” painted dreamy scenes against the backdrop of wonderful parks. His landscapes, painted with delicate and reverent colors, are very emotional, they convey various shades of mood ("Pilgrimage to the Island of Cythera", 1717, Louvre, Paris).

Antoine Watteau, Pilgrimage to the Island of Cythera, 1717, Louvre

A prominent representative of Rococo art was the French artist Francois Boucher, who created landscapes full of sensual charm.

Francois Boucher, Bridge

As if woven from blue, pink, silver shades, they seem to be delightful magical dreams (“Landscape in the vicinity of Beauvais”, Hermitage, St. Petersburg). Boucher studied with another French artist who worked in the Rococo style, Jean Honore Fragonard, whose colorful landscapes, permeated with air and light, convey the freshness of the air, the warmth of the sun's rays, the tremulous movement of foliage on the trees ("Gardens of the Villa d'Este", Wallace Collection , London).

Fragonard, Grand Cascade at Tivoli, 1760, Louvre

Joseph Mallord William Turner, The Rising of Carthage, 1815, National Gallery, London

John Constable, Hay Wagon. 1821, National Gallery, London

Theodore Rousseau, The Little Fisherman, 1849

Close to the art of the Barbizonians is the painting of Camille Corot, who sought to convey the quivering air environment with the help of valers. Camille Corot was considered their predecessor by the French impressionists. The plein air landscapes of Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, and Alfred Sisley reflect the artists’ deep interest in the changing light-air environment. Impressionist works show not only rural nature, but also a living and dynamic world modern city.

Claude Monet, White water lilies, 1899, Pushkin Museum im. A.S. Pushkin, Moscow

Apfred Sisley, Path on the shore in the evening near Sauyur in Normandy, 1894, Rouen. Museum of Fine Arts

Post-impressionist artists used modified traditions of the impressionists in their painting. From the perspective monumental art Paul Cezanne represents the majestic beauty and power of nature. Full of gloom tragic feeling landscapes by Vincent van Gogh. The sun's glare on the surface of the water, the trembling sea air and the freshness of the greenery are conveyed by the canvases of Georges Seurat and Paul Signac, made in the divisionist technique.
In the 20th century, representatives of a wide variety of people turned to the landscape genre artistic directions. Bright, intensely sonorous pictures of nature were created by the Fauvists: Henri Matisse, Andre Derain, Albert Marquet, Maurice Vlaminck, Raoul Dufy and others.

R. Delaunay. "Eiffel Tower", 1926-1928, Solomon Guggenheim Museum, New York

The Cubists (Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, Robert Delaunay, etc.) created their landscapes using dissected geometric forms. The landscape genre was of interest to surrealist artists (Salvador Dali) and abstractionists (Wassily Kandinsky, Helen Frankenthaler), who painted decorative compositions in which the main thing was the impression of direct improvisation in conveying images of nature.

Salvador Dali, The Persistence of Memory, 1931

V. Kandinsky. "Murnau - mountain landscape with church", 1910, Lenbach House Museum, Munich

Representatives of realistic movements (Rockwell Kent, George Wesley Bellows, Renato Guttuso) also remained recognized masters of landscape painting in the 20th century.
Landscape occupies a special place in Russian painting. For the first time, landscape motifs, depicted schematically, appeared in ancient Russian icon painting. The figures of Christ, the Mother of God, saints and angels on ancient icons were depicted against the backdrop of a conventional landscape, where low hills indicated rocky terrain, rare trees, the species of which could not be determined, symbolized the forest, and buildings, devoid of illusory volumes, represented temples and chambers.
The first landscapes that appeared in Russia in the 18th century were topographical views of magnificent palaces and parks. During the time of Elizaveta Petrovna, an atlas of engravings with views of St. Petersburg and its environs was published, based on the drawings of M. I. Makhaev. But only with the advent of the works of Semyon Fedorovich Shchedrin can we say that landscape as a separate genre was formed in Russian painting.

Semyon Fedorovich Shchedrin, View of the Gatchina Palace from Silver Lake. 1798. Gouache

Shchedrin’s contemporaries, M.M., made their contribution to the development of the landscape. Ivanov and F.Ya. Alekseev. Alekseev’s painting influenced young artists - M.N. Vorobyova, S.F. Galaktionova, A.E. Martynov, who dedicated their art to St. Petersburg: its palaces, embankments, canals, parks.

M.N. Vorobyov, Seaside view in Italy, 1840

M.N. Vorobyov trained a whole galaxy of wonderful landscape painters. These included brothers G.G. and N.G. Chernetsov, K.I. Rabus et al. A number of wonderful lithographic watercolor landscapes with views of the surrounding areas of St. Petersburg was completed by A.P. Bryullov, brother of the famous K.P. Bryullov, who later became an architect.

Alexander Pavlovich Bryullov, View of the Castel Sant'Angelo in Rome. 1823-1826

But the works of these masters fade next to the paintings of Sylvester Feodosievich Shchedrin, who captured the bright beauty of Italian nature on his canvases.
By the middle of the 19th century, certain principles of aesthetic perception of nature and methods of displaying it had formed in Russian landscape painting.
From Vorobyov’s school come the romantic traditions adopted by his students. Among them is M.I., who died early. Lebedev, L.F. Lagorio and I.K. Aivazovsky, whose main theme of art was the sea.

I.K. Aivazovsky, Brig Mercury, after defeating two Turkish ships, meets with the Russian squadron

M.K. Klodt. "On the arable land", 1872, Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

In the second half of the 19th century, such famous artists as I.I. made a serious contribution to the development of Russian landscape. Shishkin, F.A. Vasiliev, A. Kuindzhi, A.P. Bogolyubov, I.I. Levitan.

Shishkin, In the wild north, 1891

Shishkin, Forest wilderness, 1872

Kuindzhi, Elbrus, 1908

The traditions of Levitan's lyrical landscape were picked up by those who worked on turn of XIX-XX centuries by painters I.S. Ostroukhov, S.I. Svetoslavsky, N.N. Dubovsky.
Landscape painting of the 20th century is associated with the names of I.E. Grabar, A.A. Rylova, K.F. Yuona. P.V. created their landscapes in the spirit of symbolist art. Kuznetsov, N.P. Krymov, M.S. Saryan, V.E. Borisov-Musatov.

A.A. Rylov, Sunset, 1917

K.F. Bogaevsky, Dneprostroy, 1930

N.M. Romadin, Winter landscape, 1961

I guess I'll end this here small excursion, which can be continued indefinitely. Its purpose was to briefly highlight the main directions of the landscape genre, I hope that to some extent I succeeded.

Materials used in preparing the message http://artclassic.edu.ru/catalog.asp?ob_no=13142&cat_ob_no=13079 , http://www.fondart.ru/history_painting/istorija_pejjzazha/ , http://www.artgorizont.com/articles.php?id_article=1188 ,
http://www.newclassics.ru/reviews/346/ and some others.