They depicted the Hudson River Valley and the surrounding area, including the Adirondack and Catskill Mountains. The Hudson River School was a 19th century American art movement comprised of landscape painters who were influenced by romanticism. Theodore Rousseau is considered the most important member of the Barbizon School he is known for his capacity to lend his trees a sense of vitality through the use of careful brushstrokes. Jean-Baptiste-Corot and the Barbizon School helped to establish a French landscape tradition in the 19th century. There have been many groups of artists that have dedicated their careers to depicting nature in their art. Before the use of paint tubes, artists had to make their own paints by grinding and mixing dry pigment powders with linseed oil. This was made possible by the introduction of paint in tubes in the 1870’s, which allowed artists to more easily bring their painting supplies out of the studio. In the mid- 19th century, working outside in natural light became very important to the Barbizon School and Impressionist artists. “En plein air” is a French expression which means, “in the open air,” and refers to the act of painting out of doors. For instance, the Romantics would alter nature’s appearance in order to evoke a different emotional reaction from a viewer. Details, such as the placement of trees, people, or even clouds, can affect the overall mood of the composition. A landscapist can evoke mood with light and shadow, or they can carefully organize the details in a composition to create a sense of balance or disruption. A landscape painting can be created entirely from an artist’s imagination, or can be copied directly from nature. The sky is usually a main element, and weather often plays a key role in the overall total composition. Landscape paintings refer to the depiction of natural scenery, such as bodies of water, mountains, forests, and valleys. The tradition of contemporary landscape painting has been explored by artists such as Milton Avery, Peter Doig, David Hockney and Andrew Wyeth. Ironically, though, they had difficulty selling their works in the art market, which still preferred history paintings and portraits.

By the beginning of the 19th century, the English artists held in highest esteem were landscapists, such as Constable and J.M.W. From the late 18th century through the 19th century, landscape paintings came to be linked with technical advances in painting, as the Impressionists in France and the naturalistic scenes of John Constable pushed the boundaries of the genre. Instead, they lauded the landscapes of artists such as Claude Lorrain and Nicolas Poussin they did not attempt to capture a true landscape, but rather to compositionally organize nature in order to produce an emotional response from the viewer. These paintings were frowned upon by the French Academy, who saw scenes simply copying nature as lacking imagination. Dutch painters were responsible for the development of very subtle realist techniques for capturing light and weather with paint.

Landscape backgrounds have appeared in paintings since the Middle Ages, but did not emerge as a specific genre until the beginning of the seventeenth century.

Contemporary landscape paintings