Landscape Landscape
(French paysage, from pays - country, area), genre visual arts(or individual works of this genre), in which the main subject of the image is wild nature or nature transformed to one degree or another by man. The landscape reproduces real or imaginary views of areas, architectural buildings, cities (urban architectural landscape - veduta), sea views (marina), etc. Often the landscape serves as a background in pictorial, graphic, sculptural (reliefs, medals) works of other genres. By depicting the phenomena and forms of man’s natural environment, the artist expresses both his attitude towards nature and the perception of it by contemporary society. Because of this, the landscape acquires emotionality and significant ideological content.
Images of nature were found back in the Neolithic era ( symbols vault of heaven, luminaries, cardinal directions, earth's surface, boundaries of the inhabited world). The reliefs and paintings of the countries of the Ancient East (Babylonia, Assyria, Egypt), mainly in scenes of wars, hunting and fishing, contain individual elements of the landscape, especially multiplied and concretized in the ancient Egyptian art of the New Kingdom. Landscape motifs became widespread in the art of Crete in the 16th-15th centuries. BC e. ( cm. Aegean art), where for the first time the impression of an emotionally convincing unity of fauna, flora and natural elements was achieved. Landscape elements of ancient Greek art are usually inseparable from the image of man; The Hellenistic and ancient Roman landscapes, which included elements of perspective (illusionistic paintings, mosaics, so-called pictorial reliefs), had somewhat greater independence. This era is characterized by the image of nature, perceived as the sphere of idyllic existence of man and the gods. In the medieval art of Europe, landscape elements (especially views of cities and individual buildings) often served as a means of conventional spaces and structures (for example, “hills” or “chambers” in Russian icons), in most cases turning into laconic indications of the scene of action. In a number of compositions, landscape details formed speculative and theological schemes that reflected medieval ideas about the Universe.
In medieval art of countries Muslim East elements of the landscape were initially presented very sparingly, with the exception of rare examples based on Hellenistic traditions. From the XIII-XIV centuries. they occupy an increasingly significant place in book miniatures, where in the 15th-16th centuries. in the works of the Tabriz school and the Herat school, landscape backgrounds, distinguished by the radiant purity of colors, evoke the idea of nature as an enclosed magical garden. Landscape details achieve great emotional power in the medieval art of India (especially in miniatures starting from the Mughal school), Indochina and Indonesia (for example, images of tropical forests in reliefs on mythological and epic themes). Landscape occupied an extremely important position as an independent genre in the painting of medieval China, where ever-renewing nature was considered the most visual embodiment of the world law (Tao); this concept finds direct expression in the Shan Shui (Gur-Wood) type of landscape. In the perception of the Chinese landscape, a significant role was played by poetic inscriptions, symbolic motifs that personified sublime spiritual qualities (mountain pine, bamboo, wild plum "meihua"), human figures residing in a space that seems limitless due to the introduction of vast mountain panoramas into the composition, water surfaces and foggy haze. The individual spatial plans of the Chinese landscape are not delimited, but flow freely into one another, subordinate to the general decorative design of the picture plane. Among the largest masters of Chinese landscape (which emerged in the 6th century) are Guo Xi (11th century), Ma Yuan, Xia Gui (both - the end of the 12th - the first half of the 13th century), Mu-qi (the first half of the 13th century) . Japanese landscape, formed by the 12th-13th centuries. and was strongly influenced by Chinese art, is distinguished by its heightened graphic quality (for example, in Sesshu, 15th century), the tendency to highlight individual, most decoratively advantageous motifs, and finally (in the 18th-19th centuries), a more active role of man in nature ( landscapes by Katsushika Hokusai and Ando Hiroshige).
In Western European art of the XII-XV centuries. the tendency towards a sensually convincing interpretation of the world leads to the fact that the landscape background begins to be understood as a fundamentally important part of a work of fine art. Conventional (golden or ornamental) backgrounds are replaced by landscape ones, often turning into a wide panorama of the world (Giotto and A. Lorenzetti in Italy of the 14th century; Burgundian and Dutch miniaturists of the 14th-15th centuries; brothers H. and J. van Eyck in the Netherlands; K . Witz and L. Moser in Switzerland and Germany in the first half of the 15th century). Renaissance artists turned to direct study of nature, created sketches and watercolor sketches, developed principles for the perspective construction of landscape space, guided by the concepts of the rationality of the laws of the universe and reviving the idea of landscape as a real human habitat (the latter point was especially characteristic of the Italian masters of the Quattrocento). Important place in the history of landscape is the work of A. Mantegna, P. Uccello, Piero della Francesca, Leonardo da Vinci, Gentile and Giovanni Bellini, Giorgione, Titian, Tintoretto in Italy, Hugo van der Goes, Geertgen tot Sint-Jans, H. Bosch in the Netherlands , A. Durer, M. Niethardt in Germany, masters of the Danube school in Germany and Austria. In the art of the Renaissance, the prerequisites were formed for the emergence of an independent landscape genre, which took shape initially in graphics (A. Durer and the Danube school) and in small pictorial compositions, where the image of nature either constitutes the only content of the picture (A. Altdorfer) or reigns supreme over the foreground scenes ( Dutchman I. Patinir). If Italian artists sought to emphasize the harmonious consonance of human and natural principles (Giorgione, Titian), and in urban landscape backgrounds to embody the idea of an ideal architectural environment (Raphael), then German masters were especially willing to turn to wildlife, often giving it a catastrophically stormy appearance. The combination of landscape and genre aspects, typical of the Dutch landscape, leads to the most striking results in the works of P. Bruegel the Elder, the distinctive features of which are not only the grandeur of panoramic compositions, but also the deepest penetration into character folk life, organically connected with the landscape environment. In the XVI - early XVII centuries. A number of Dutch masters (Herri met de Bles, Josse de Momper, Gillis van Coninksloe) intertwined traditional features of the Renaissance landscape, subtle observations of life, with manneristic fantasy, emphasizing the artist’s subjective and emotional attitude to the world.
By the beginning of the 17th century. in the works of the Italian An. Carracci, the Dutchman P. Briel and the German A. Elsheimer formulate the principles of an “ideal” landscape, subordinate to the idea of a reasonable law hidden under the external diversity of various aspects of nature. In the art of classicism, the system of conventional, backstage, three-plane composition was finally consolidated, and the fundamental difference between a sketch or sketch and a completed landscape painting was affirmed. Along with this, the landscape becomes a bearer of high ethical content, which is especially characteristic of the works of N. Poussin and C. Lorrain, whose works represent two versions of the “ideal” landscape - heroic and idyllic. In the Baroque landscape (Flemish P. P. Rubens, Italians S. Rosa and A. Magnasco), the elemental power of nature takes precedence, sometimes seeming to suppress man. Elements of painting from nature, outdoors ( cm. Plein air) appear in the landscapes of D. Velazquez, marked by extraordinary freshness of perception. Dutch painters and graphic artists of the 17th century. (J. van Goyen, H. Segers, J. van Ruisdael, M. Hobbema, Rembrandt, J. Wermeer of Delft), developing in detail the light-air perspective and the system of shades-values, combined a poetic feeling in their works natural life nature, its eternal variability, the idea of the grandeur of endless natural spaces with the idea of the close connection of nature with the everyday existence of man. Dutch masters created diverse types of landscapes (including marina and cityscapes).
Since the 17th century Topographical landscape views became widespread (engravers were the German M. Merian and the Czech V. Gollar), the development of which was largely predetermined by the use of a camera obscura, which made it possible to transfer individual motifs onto canvas or paper with unprecedented precision. This kind of landscape in the 18th century. reaches its peak in saturated with air and the light vedata of Canaletto and B. Belotto, in the works of F. Guardi, which open a qualitatively new stage in the history of landscape, notable for their masterly reproduction of the changing light-air environment. View landscape in the 18th century. played a decisive role in the formation of landscape in those European countries, where until the 18th century. there was no independent landscape genre (including in Russia, where the largest representatives of this type of landscape were the graphic artists A.F. Zubov, M.I. Makhaev, and the painter F.Ya. Alekseev). A special place is occupied by the graphic landscapes of G.B. Piranesi, who romanticized ruins and monuments of ancient architecture and endowed them with superhuman grandeur. The tradition of the “ideal” landscape acquired an exquisitely decorative interpretation in the Rococo era (Landscape depicting the ruins of the Frenchman Y. Robert), but in general the “ideal” landscape, which took (under the name historical or mythological) a secondary position in the classicist system of genres, throughout the 18th century V. degenerates into an academic direction that subordinates natural motifs to the abstract laws of classic composition. Pre-Romantic trends can be discerned in the intimate and lyrical park backgrounds in the paintings of A. Watteau, J. O. Fragonard in France, as well as in the works of the founders of the English school of landscape - T. Gainsborough, R. Wilson.
At the end of the 18th - first half of the 19th century. the landscape is dominated by the tendencies of romanticism (J. Crome, J. S. Cotman, J. R. Cozens, J. M. W. Turner in Great Britain; J. Michel in France; K. D. Friedrich, L. Richter in Germany; J. A. Koch in Austria; J. K. K. Dahl in Norway; landscape also played a huge role in the works of F. Goya and T. Gericault). The importance of landscape in artistic system romanticism is explained by the fact that the romantics brought the life of the human soul closer to the life of nature, seeing a return to the natural environment as a means to correct moral and social imperfections of man. They showed special sensitivity to the individual uniqueness of individual states of nature and the uniqueness of national landscapes. The latter features are extremely characteristic of the work of the Englishman J. Constable, who most contributed to the evolution of the landscape to real images that preserve the freshness of the full-scale sketch. Generalization, poetic clarity of perception of the world, as well as interest in the problems of the plein air are characteristic of the masters who stand at the origins of the national schools of European realistic landscapes (the early C. Corot in France; partly C. Blechen in Germany; A. A. Ivanov, partly S. F. . Shchedrin and M.I. Lebedev in Russia).
Representatives realistic landscape mid and second half of the 19th century. (Coro, masters of the Barbizon school, G. Courbet, J. F. Millet, E. Boudin in France; Macchiaioli in Italy; A. Menzel and partly the Düsseldorf school in Germany; J. B. Jongkind and the Hague school in Holland, etc. ) gradually eliminated literary associativity romantic landscape, trying to show the intrinsic value of nature through revealing the objective essence of the processes occurring in it. Landscape painters of this period sought naturalness and simplicity of composition (in particular, abandoning panoramic views in most cases), and developed in detail the light-and-shadow and value relationships that made it possible to convey the material palpability of the natural environment. The ethical and philosophical sound of the landscape, inherited from romanticism, now takes on a more democratic direction, manifested in the fact that people from the people and scenes of rural labor were increasingly included in the landscape.
In the Russian landscape of the 19th century. romantic traditions play a leading role in the work of M. N. Vorobyov and I. K. Aivazovsky. In the second half of the 19th century. There was a flourishing of realistic landscape (the foundations of which were laid in the works of A. G. Venetsianov and especially A. A. Ivanov), closely connected with the activities of the Wanderers. Overcoming the artificiality and theatricality of the academic landscape, Russian artists turned to their native nature (L. L. Kamenev, M. K. Klodt), the motifs of which are particularly monumental and epic in scope in the works of I. I. Shishkin. The tendency to depict transitional states of nature, the lyrical richness characteristic of the work of A. K. Savrasov, takes on a dramatic and intense hue in F. A. Vasiliev. Late romantic trends are manifested in the works of A. I. Kuindzhi, who combined a passion for strong lighting effects with a decorative interpretation of the picture plane. At the end of the 19th century. the line of emotional-lyrical landscape, often imbued with motifs of civil grief, is continued in the so-called mood landscape; Landscapes of this kind include the works of V. D. Polenov, marked by soft contemplation, and especially the canvases of I. I. Levitan, who combined intimate psychologism and the most subtle transfer of states of nature with a sublimely philosophical interpretation of landscape motifs.
Landscape acquired dominant significance among the masters of impressionism (C. Monet, C. Pissarro, A. Sisley, etc.), who considered working in the open air an indispensable condition for creating a landscape image. The most important component In the landscape, the impressionists created a vibrating, light-air environment rich in colorful shades, enveloping objects and ensuring the visual indissolubility of nature and man. Trying to capture the diverse variability of the states of nature, they often created landscape series united by one motif (Monet). Their works also reflected the dynamics of modern urban life, thanks to which the urban landscape acquired equal rights with images of nature. At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. In the landscape, several directions are emerging that develop the principles of the impressionistic landscape and at the same time enter into an antagonistic relationship with them. P. Cezanne asserted in his works the monumental power and clear constructiveness of natural landscapes. J. Seurat subordinated landscape motifs to strictly calibrated, planar and decorative structures. V. van Gogh strove for increased, often tragic, psychological associativity of landscape images, giving individual details of the landscape an almost human animation. In the works of P. Gauguin, close to the landscape of symbolism and distinguished by the sonority of rhythmic local color planes, the image of an idyll landscape is radically rethought. Artists associated with symbolism and the Art Nouveau style (Nabi in France, F. Hodler in Switzerland, E. Munch in Norway, A. Gallen-Kallela in Finland) introduced into the landscape the idea of the mysterious kinship between man and “matter.” lands" (from here come the types of landscape-dream and landscape-memory, popular during this period), played in their compositions with various kinds of "through forms" (branches, roots, stems, etc.), the ornamental arrangement of which creates the illusion of direct imitation of rhythms nature itself. At the same time, the search for a generalized image of the homeland, typical of national romantic movements, intensified, often saturated with folklore or historical reminiscences and combining the most established signs of the national landscape (the Pole F. Ruszczyc, the Czech A. Slavichek, the Romanian S. Lukyan, the Latvian V. Purvit).
In the art of the 20th century. a number of masters strive to find the most stable features of a particular landscape motif, clearing it of everything “transitory” (representatives of Cubism), others, with the help of jubilant or dramatically intense color harmonies, emphasize the internal dynamics of the landscape, and sometimes its national identity (representatives of Fauvism and close them masters in France, Yugoslavia, Poland, and expressionism in Germany, Austria and Belgium), others, partly under the influence of art photography, shift the main emphasis to the whimsicality and psychological expressiveness of the motif (representatives of surrealism). In the work of a number of representatives of these movements, the tendency to deform the landscape image, often turning the landscape into a pretext for abstract constructions, was a way of transition to abstract art(landscape played a similar role, for example, in the works of the Dutchman P. Mondrian, the Swiss P. Klee and the Russian V.V. Kandinsky). In the 20th century became widespread in Europe and America industrial landscape, often interpreting the world of technology as a kind of anti-nature, irresistibly hostile to people (C. Demuth, N. Spencer, C. Sheeler in the USA, P. Bruening in Germany). The cityscape of the Futurists and Expressionists often takes on a sharply aggressive or alienated appearance, imbued with moods of tragic hopelessness or melancholy. This feature is also inherent in the work of a number of realist masters (M. Utrillo in France, E. Hopper in the USA). At the same time, a landscape of a realistic and national-romantic nature is rapidly developing, in which images of pristinely beautiful nature often turn into a direct antithesis of capitalist civilization (B. Palencia in Spain, Kjarval in Iceland, the “group of seven” in Canada, R. Kent in the USA, A. Namatjira in Australia).
In the Russian landscape turn of XIX-XX centuries realistic traditions of the second half of the 19th century V. intertwined with the influences of Impressionism and Art Nouveau. Close to the landscape-mood of Levitan, but more chamber in spirit, are the works of V. A. Serov, P. I. Petrovichev, L. V. Turzhansky, depicting predominantly modest views, devoid of external showiness and distinguished by the etude spontaneity of composition and color. The combination of lyrical intonations with increased sonority of color is characteristic of the work of K. A. Korovin and especially I. E. Grabar. National-romantic features are inherent in the works of A. A. Rylov and the landscape-genre compositions of K. F. Yuon; the folklore, historical or literary moment plays an important role in A. M. Vasnetsov, M. V. Nesterov, N. K. Roerich, as well as in the “heroic” landscape of K. F. Bogaevsky. Among the masters of the "World of Art" the type of landscape-memory was cultivated (L. S. Bakst, K. A. Somov), historical and architectural views imbued with elegiac notes arose (A. N. Benois, E. E. Lansere, A. P. . Ostroumova-Lebedeva), highly dramatic urban landscape (M. V. Dobuzhinsky). Among the variations on the theme of an surreal dream landscape in the spirit of V. E. Borisov-Musatov, typical of the Blue Rose artists, stand out the Orientalist compositions of P. V. Kuznetsov and M. S. Saryan, as well as paintings by N. P. Krymov, striving for strict balance in coloristic and compositional solutions. In the landscape of the masters of the “Jack of Diamonds”, the richness of the color scheme and the temperamental, free pictorial manner reveal the plastic richness and colorfulness of nature.
For the Soviet landscape, developing in line with socialist realism, the most characteristic images are those that reveal the life-affirming beauty of the world, close connection it with the transformative activities of people. Masters who emerged in the pre-revolutionary period came to the fore in this field, but after October revolution 1917 who entered a new phase of creativity (V.N. Baksheev, Grabar, Krymov, A.V. Kuprin, Ostroumova-Lebedeva, Rylov, Yuon, etc.), as well as artists whose activities are entirely related to Soviet times(S. V. Gerasimov, A. M. Gritsai, N. M. Romadin, V. V. Meshkov, S. A. Chuikov). In the 20s the Soviet industrial landscape is emerging (B. N. Yakovlev and others). inspired by the pathos of socialist construction, a type of memorial landscape takes shape (for example, the canvases of V. K. Byalynitsky-Biruli with views of Lenin Hills and Yasnaya Polyana). In the 30-50s. Monumental landscape paintings, based on a thorough rethinking of the sketch material, are becoming more widespread. In the works of Soviet landscape painters, a synthetic image of the Motherland increasingly emerges through the features of a specific locality, due to which even views traditionally associated with the romantic concept of landscape (for example, landscapes of the Crimea or the Far North) lose the touch of exotic alienation. Artists are attracted to motifs that allow them to show the interaction of industrial and natural forms, dynamic shifts in the spatial perception of the world associated with the accelerating pace modern life(A. A. Deineka, G. G. Nissky, P. P. Ossovsky). In the republican schools of Soviet landscape painting, the leading role is played by the works of I. I. Bokshai, A. A. Shovkunenko in Ukraine, D. Kakabadze in Georgia, Saryan in Armenia, U. Tansykbaev in Uzbekistan, A. Zhmuidzinavichyus and A. Gudaitis in Lithuania, E. Keats in Estonia. In the 60-80s. The principle of a landscape-picture retains its importance, but the tendency towards heightened expressiveness of texture and color, towards naked compositional rhythms that actively influence the audience, comes to the fore. Among the most significant Soviet landscape painters who emerged in the 50-70s are L. I. Brodskaya, B. F. Domashnikov, E. I. Zverkov, T. Salakhov, V. M. Sidorov, V. F. Stozharov , I. Shvazhas.
"Palace in Luoyang". Silk, ink, water paints. 8th century
J. Wermer. "View of Delft". Around 1658. Mauritshuis. Hague.
K. Lorrain. "The Departure of St. Ursula." 1646. National Gallery. London.
J. Constable. "The Mill at Dedham." Circa 1819. Tate Gallery. London.
I. E. Grabar. "Birch Alley". 1940. Tretyakov Gallery. Moscow.
G. G. Nissky. "Moscow region. February." 1957. Tretyakov Gallery. Moscow.
M.K. Avetisyan. " Autumn landscape". 1973. Private collection. Yerevan.
Literature: Fedorov-A. Davydov, Russian landscape of the 18th - early 19th centuries, M., 1953; his, Soviet landscape, M., 1958; his, Russian landscape late XIX- beginning of the 20th century, M., 1974; F. Maltseva, Masters of Russian realistic landscape, V. 1-2, M., 1953-59; Masters of Soviet landscape about landscape, M., 1963; N. A. Vinogradova, Chinese landscape painting, M., 1972; N. Kalitina, French landscape painting. 1870-1970, L., 1972; Problems of landscape in European art of the 19th century V., M., 1978; O. R. Nikulina, Nature through the eyes of an artist, M., 1982; Santini P. S., Modern landscape painting, L, 1972; Pochat G., Figur und Landschaft, B.-N. Y., 1973; Clark K., Landscape into art, L., 1976; Wedewer R., Landshaftsmalerei zwischen Traum und Wirklichkeit, Köln, 1978; Baur Ch., Landschaftsmalerei der Romantik, Munch., 1979; Strisik P., The art of landscape painting, N. Y., 1980.
Source: Popular art encyclopedia." Ed. Polevoy V.M.; M.: Publishing house "Soviet Encyclopedia", 1986.)
scenery(French paysage, from pays - country, locality), a genre of painting dedicated to the depiction of nature in all the diversity of its forms, appearances, states, colored by the artist’s personal perception.
Landscape first appeared as an independent genre in China (c. 7th century). Chinese artists achieved exceptional spirituality and philosophical depth in their landscapes. On long horizontal or vertical silk scrolls they wrote not views of nature, but a holistic image of the universe in which man is dissolved (see Art. Chinese art).
In Western European art, the landscape genre took shape in Holland in the first half. 17th century One of its founders was I. Patinir, a master of panoramic views with small figures of biblical or mythological characters included in them. H. Averkamp, J. van Goyen, and later J. van Ruisdael and other artists made their contribution to the development of the landscape. Marine species occupied a large place in the Dutch landscape - marina. Towards a documentary urban landscape - lead- the Italians, especially the Venetian masters, appealed. Canaletto represented Venice during its prosperity. Subtle poetic fantasies on themes of Venetian life were created by F. Guardi. In French art 17th century the landscape developed in line with the style classicism. Nature, full of powerful and heroic forces, appears in the paintings of N. Poussin; ideal landscapes that embodied the dream of a golden age, wrote K. Lorrain.
He acted as a reformer of European landscape painting in the beginning. 19th century English artist J. Constable. He was one of the first to paint sketches in the open air, looking at nature with an “unbiased look.” His works made an indelible impression on French painters and served as an impetus for the development of realistic landscape in France (K. Koro and artists Barbizon school). Even more complex painting tasks were set by impressionist artists (K. Monet, ABOUT. Renoir, TO. Pissaro, A. Sisley and etc.). The play of sun glare on the foliage, faces, clothes of people, the change of impressions and lighting within one day, the vibration of the air and humid fog are embodied in their canvases. Artists often created a series of landscapes with a single motif (“Rouen Cathedral” by Monet at different times of the day, 1893-95). In the “sunny” paintings of the Impressionists, pure colors, not mixed on the palette, sounded joyfully for the first time. Landscapes were painted entirely on plein air, from life.
In Russian art, landscape as an independent genre appeared at the end. 18th century Its founders were architects, theater decorators, and masters of perspective views. IN St. Petersburg Academy of Arts landscape painters were brought up in accordance with the principles of classicism. They had to create views of their native nature based on the models of famous paintings of the past, and above all the works of Italians of the 17th and 18th centuries. Landscapes were “composed” in the workshop, therefore, for example, the northern and damp Gatchina (near St. Petersburg) looked in the canvases of Semyon Fedorovich Shchedrin similar to sunny Italy (“Stone Bridge in Gatchina near the Place de la Connetable”, 1799–1800). Heroic landscapes were created by F. M. Matveev, referring mainly to views of Italian nature (“View of Rome. Colosseum”, 1816). F. Ya. Alekseev with great cordiality and warmth he painted architectural views of the capital and provincial cities of Russia. In Russian landscapes of the 18th century, built according to the rules of classicism, the main “hero” (most often an ancient architectural structure) was placed in the center; trees or bushes on both sides served as scenes; the space was clearly divided into three planes, with the image in the foreground in brown tones, in the second in green, and in the background in blue.
era romanticism brings new trends. The landscape is thought of as the embodiment of the soul of the universe; nature, like the human soul, appears in dynamics, in eternal variability. Sylvester Feodosievich Shchedrin, the nephew of Semyon Fedorovich Shchedrin, who worked in Italy, was the first to paint landscapes not in the studio, but in the open air, achieving greater naturalness and truthfulness in conveying the light-air environment. The fertile land of Italy, filled with light and warmth, becomes a dream come true in his paintings. Here it is as if the sun never sets and eternal summer reigns, and people are free, beautiful and live in harmony with nature (“The Shore in Sorrento with a View of the Island of Capri”, 1826; “Terrace on the Seashore”, 1928). Romantic motifs with the effects of lunar lighting, the gloomy poetry of dark nights or the sparkle of lightning attracted M. N. Vorobyov (“Autumn Night in St. Petersburg. Pier with Egyptian Sphinxes at Night,” 1835; “An Oak Shattered by Lightning,” 1842). During his 40-year service at the Academy of Arts, Vorobyov trained a galaxy of remarkable landscape painters, among whom was the famous marine painter I.K. Aivazovsky.
There is a second gender in painting. 19th century landscape occupied an important place in creativity Itinerants. A revelation for the Russian public were the paintings of A.K. Savrasova(“The Rooks Have Arrived”, 1871; “Country Road”, 1873), who discovered the modest beauty of Russian nature and managed to sincerely reveal its innermost life in his canvases. Savrasov became the founder of the lyrical “mood landscape” in Russian painting, the line of which was continued by F.A. Vasiliev(“Thaw”, 1871; “ Wet meadow", 1872) and I.I. Levitan(“Evening Bells”, 1892; “Golden Autumn”, 1895). I.I. Shishkin, unlike Savrasov, sang the heroic strength, abundance and epic power of the Russian land (“Rye”, 1878; “Forest Dales”, 1884). His paintings fascinate with the infinity of space, the vastness of the high sky, the mighty beauty of Russian forests and fields. The peculiarity of his painting style was the careful drawing of details combined with the monumentality of the composition. Landscapes A.I. Kuindzhi amazed their contemporaries with the effects of the lunar or sunlight. The expressiveness of the broadly and freely painted paintings “Moonlit Night on the Dnieper” (1880) and “Birch Grove” (1879) is based on precisely found light and color contrasts. V.D. Polenov in the paintings “Moscow Courtyard” and “Grandma’s Garden” (both 1878), he subtly and poetically conveyed the charm of life in the ancient “noble nests”. His works are painted with barely perceptible notes of sadness and nostalgia for a passing culture.
At the turn of the 19th–20th centuries. K.A. Korovin(“Parisian Café”, 1890s) and I.E. Grabar (« February blue", 1904) wrote views of nature in the spirit impressionism. P.V. Kuznetsov, K.S. Petrov-Vodkin, K.F. Bogaevsky, M.S. Saryan and others created landscapes that take the viewer into a world of dreams about distant lands untouched by civilization, about bygone great eras. Masters Soviet art continued the great traditions of their predecessors. A new genre of industrial landscape appeared, clearly reflecting the life-affirming pathos of the era (B. N. Yakovlev, G. G. Nissky, P. P. Ossovsky, etc.). In con. 20 – beginning 21st century the landscape still attracts painters of different generations (N. M. Romadin, N. I. Andronov, V. F. Stozharov, I. A. Starzhenetskaya, N. I. Nesterova and etc.)
The theme of landscape as a genre of fine art is terrain. The word “landscape” is translated from French as “terrain, country.” After all, landscape is not only the image of nature that is familiar to us. The landscape can also be urban (architectural, for example). In the urban landscape, a documentary-accurate image is distinguished - “veduta”.
And if we talk about natural landscape, then they highlight separately seascape, which is called “marina” (accordingly, artists depicting the sea are called “marinists”), cosmic (image of celestial space, stars and planets).
But landscapes also differ in terms of time: modern, historical, futuristic landscapes.
However, in art, no matter what the landscape is (real or fictional), it is always an artistic image. In this regard, it is important to understand that for everyone artistic style(classicism, baroque, romanticism, realism, modernism) are characterized by their own philosophy and aesthetics of landscape images.
Of course, the landscape genre developed gradually, just as science developed. It would seem, what do landscapes and science have in common? A lot in common! To create a realistic landscape, you must have knowledge of linear and aerial perspective, proportionality, composition, light and shade, etc.
Therefore, the landscape genre is considered a relatively young genre in painting. For a long time, landscape was only an “auxiliary” means: nature was depicted as a background in portraits, icons, and genre scenes. Often it was not real, but idealized, generalized.
And although the landscape began to develop in ancient Eastern art, it received independent significance in Western European art starting around the 14th century.
And it would be very interesting to figure out why this happened. After all, by this time a person already knew how to quite correctly depict abstract ideas, his appearance, his life, animals in graphic symbols, but he remained indifferent to nature for a long time. And only now is he trying to understand nature and its essence, because... In order to depict, one must understand.
Development of landscape in European painting
Interest in landscape becomes clearly noticeable, starting with the painting of the Early Renaissance.
Italian artist and architect Giotto(about 1267-1337) developed absolutely new approach to the image of space. And although in his paintings the landscape was also only an auxiliary means, it already carried an independent semantic load; Giotto turned the flat, two-dimensional space of the icon into three-dimensional, creating the illusion of depth using chiaroscuro.
Giotto "Flight into Egypt" (Church of San Francesco in Assisi)
The film conveys an idyllic spring mood landscape.
The landscape began to play an even more important role in the era High Renaissance(XVI century). It was during this period that the search began for the possibilities of composition, perspective and other components of painting to convey the surrounding world.
In the creation of the landscape genre of this period big role played by masters of the Venetian school: Giorgione (1476/7-1510), Titian (1473-1576), El Greco (1541-1614).
El Greco "View of Toledo" (1596-1600). Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York)
The Spanish city of Toledo is depicted under a gloomy stormy sky. The contrast between heaven and earth is obvious. The view of the city is given from below, the horizon line is raised high, and phantasmagoric light is used.
In creativity Pieter Bruegel (the Elder) the landscape is already gaining breadth, freedom and sincerity. He writes simply, but in this simplicity one can see the nobility of a soul that knows how to see beauty in nature. He knows how to convey both the petty world under his feet and the vastness of fields, mountains, and skies. He has no dead, empty places - everything lives and breathes with him.
We bring to your attention two paintings by P. Bruegel from the cycle “The Seasons”.
P. Bruegel (the Elder) “Return of the Herd” (1565). Kunsthistorisches Museum (Vienna)
P. Bruegel (The Elder) “Hunters in the Snow” (1565). Kunsthistorisches Museum (Vienna)
In the paintings of a Spanish artist D. Velazquez we can already see the birth of plein air ( plein air- from fr. en plein air – “in the open air”) painting. His work “View of the Villa Medici” conveys the freshness of greenery, warm shades of light sliding along the leaves of trees and high stone walls.
D. Velazquez “View of the garden of the Villa Medici in Rome” (1630)
Rubens(1577-1640), life-affirming, dynamic, characteristic of the work of this artist.
P. Rubens “Landscape with a Rainbow”
From a French artist Francois Boucher(1703-1770) landscapes seem to be woven from blue, pink, and silver shades.
F. Boucher “Landscape with a water mill” (1755). National Gallery (London)
Impressionist artists sought to develop methods and techniques that made it possible to capture the most naturally and vividly real world in its mobility and variability, to convey your fleeting impressions.
Auguste Renoir "The Paddling Pool". Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York)
Post-Impressionist artists developed the traditions of the Impressionists in their painting.
Vincent Vague Gogh "Starry Night" (1889)
In the 20th century Representatives of a wide variety of artistic movements turned to the landscape genre: fauvists, cubists, surrealists, abstractionists, realists.
Here is an example of a landscape American artist Helen (Helen) Frankenthaler(1928-2011), who worked in the style of abstract art.
Helen Frankenthaler "Mountains and Sea" (1952)
Some types of landscape
Architectural landscape
N.V. Gogol called architecture “the chronicle of the world”, because she, in his opinion, “speaks even when both songs and legends are already silent...”. Nowhere is the character and style of the time manifested so figuratively and clearly as in architecture. Apparently, this is why the masters of painting captured the architectural landscape on their canvases.
F. Ya. Alekseev “View of the Exchange and the Admiralty from the Peter and Paul Fortress” (1810)
The painting depicts the Spit of Vasilyevsky Island. The compositional center of its architectural ensemble is the Exchange building. In front of the Exchange there is a semicircular square with a granite embankment. On its two sides there are columns that served as beacons. At the foot of the columns there are stone sculptures symbolizing the Russian rivers: the Volga, Dnieper, Neva and Volkhov. On the opposite bank of the river you can see Winter Palace and the Admiralty building, Senate Square. Construction of the Exchange according to the project of Thomas de Thomon lasted from 1804 to 1810. When Pushkin arrived in St. Petersburg in 1811, the Exchange had already become architectural center Spit of Vasilievsky Island and the busiest place in the port city.
A type of architectural landscape is the veduta. As a matter of fact, this landscape by F. Alekseev is the vedova.
Veduta
Veduta is a genre of European painting, especially popular in Venice in the 18th century. It is a painting, drawing or engraving of a detailed depiction of an everyday city landscape. So, Dutch artist Jan Vermeer depicted exactly his native city of Delft.
Jan Vermeer "View of Delft" (1660)
Veduta masters worked in many European countries, including Russia (M. I. Makhaev and F. Ya. Alekseev). A whole series of leads with Russian views was performed by Giacomo Quarenghi.
Marina
Marina is a genre of painting, a type of landscape (from the Latin marinus - sea), depicting a sea view or a scene of a naval battle, as well as other events taking place at sea. Marina emerged as an independent type of landscape painting at the beginning of the 17th century. in Holland.
Marine painter (French mariniste) is an artist who paints marine life. The most prominent representatives of this genre are the Englishmen William Turner and Russian (Armenian) artist Ivan Constantinovich Aivazovski, who painted about 6,000 paintings on a marine theme.
W. Turner “The last voyage of the ship “Brave””
I. Aivazovsky “Rainbow”
A rainbow that appears in a stormy sea gives hope for the rescue of people from a shipwrecked ship.
Historical landscape
Everything about it is quite simple: to show the past through the historical setting, natural and architectural environment. Here we can remember the pictures N.K. Roerich, images of Moscow in the 17th century. A.M. Vasnetsova, Russian Baroque of the 18th century. HER. Lanceray, A.N. Benoit, archaic K.F. Bogaevsky and etc.
N. Roerich “Overseas Guests” (1901)
This is a painting from the series “The Beginning of Rus'. Slavs". In the article “On the Way from the Varangians to the Greeks” (1899), Roerich described an imaginary poetic picture: “The midnight guests are sailing. The gently sloping shore of the Gulf of Finland stretches like a light stripe. The water seemed to be saturated with the blue of the clear spring sky; the wind ripples across it, driving away matte-purple stripes and circles. A flock of seagulls landed on the waves, carelessly swayed on them and only under the very keel of the front boat flashed their wings - something unfamiliar, unprecedented, alarmed their peaceful life. A new stream makes its way through the stagnant water, it runs into the centuries-old Slavic life, it will pass through forests and swamps, it will roll over a wide field, it will raise up the Slavic families - they will see rare, unfamiliar guests, they will marvel at their strictly martial, at their overseas custom. The rooks are coming in a long row! Bright coloring burns in the Sun. The bow sides turned up dashingly, ending in a high, slender nose.”
K. Bogaevsky “Consular Tower in Sudak” (1903). Feodosiyskaya Art Gallery named after I.K. Aivazovsky
Futuristic (fantastic) landscape
Paintings Belgian artist Jonas De Ro are epic canvases of new, unexplored worlds. The main object of Jonas's images are extensive pictures of the post-apocalyptic world, futuristic, fantastic images.
Apart from the future absolutely real cities, Jonas also draws completely original illustrations of an abandoned city.
J. De Roe “Abandoned Civilization”
Philosophy of landscape
What is it?
At the center of landscape painting is always the question of man’s relationship to environment– be it the city or nature. But the environment also has its own relation to man. And these relationships can be harmonious and inharmonious.
Consider the landscape “Evening Bells”.
I. Levitan “Evening Bells” (1892). State Tretyakov Gallery (Moscow)
The painting “Evening Bells” depicts a monastery at a bend in the river and illuminated by evening sun rays. The monastery is surrounded by an autumn forest, clouds float across the sky - and all this is reflected in the mirror surface of a calmly flowing river. The bright joy of nature and the spiritual world of people’s existence and feelings are fused in harmony. I want to look at this picture and look at it, it calms the soul. This is blissful, idyllic beauty.
And here is another landscape by the same artist - “Above Eternal Peace.”
I. Levitan “Above Eternal Peace” (1894). State Tretyakov Gallery (Moscow)
Levitan himself wrote about this picture: “... I am all in it, with all my psyche, with all my content...”. In another letter: “Eternity, a terrible eternity, in which generations have drowned and will drown again... What horror, what fear!” It is this menacing eternity that Levitan’s painting makes us think about. The water and sky in the picture captivate and amaze a person, awakening the thought of the insignificance and transience of life. On a steep, high bank there is a lonely wooden church, next to it is a cemetery with rickety crosses and abandoned graves. The wind shakes the trees, drives the clouds, drags the viewer into the endless northern expanse. The gloomy grandeur of nature is opposed only by a tiny light in the window of the church.
The artist may have wanted to answer with his painting the question about the relationship between man and nature, about the meaning of life, contrasting the eternal and powerful forces of nature with the weak and short-lived human life. This is sublime tragedy.
Fine art is a genre that is created to please the eye. Naturally, the painters first of all sought to depict what they themselves admired. This is how the landscape appeared - the beauty of nature, transferred to canvas with the help of brushes and paints.
Artists began depicting nature even before the onset. However, in those days such an image served as a background, or part of the picture. Considering that most of the works were tied to religious themes, the depiction of nature was rather sketchy.
Landscape originated in the works of Dutch painters. The nature of their country was very peculiar - swampy shores, overhanging skies, sparse vegetation. However, the Dutch were able to discern a unique flavor in this and convey it on canvas. The first landscapes were small and intended to decorate the walls of village houses.
In the process of the formation of painting, the landscape continued its development. Over time, artists came up with a lot unusual techniques, which helped to depict plants and landscapes in detail, convey unusual combinations of light and shadow, and achieve unusual color solutions.
Appeared different kinds landscape. Among them, the most striking are urban and rural landscapes, architectural landscapes and “marina” - canvases on which the sea was depicted.
"Ocean" - I.K. Aivazovsky (view of the “marina” landscape)
Several trends in landscape painting emerged. - where nature was depicted with maximum accuracy and realism. - an attempt by artists to express their feelings through the depiction of natural beauties. Impressionism is “airy” painting, where nature and the word come to life.
Despite the fact that artists learned to paint the world around them with maximum accuracy, the essence of the landscape was completely different. This genre is a reflection of the artist’s inner world, an attempt to express his vision of the world through images of nature painted on canvas. That is why the landscapes are so diverse.
A.K. Savrasov
There were many different schools of landscape painting. Among them, Russian landscape masters stand out, whose works have become famous throughout the world. This is A.K. Savrasov, I.V. Levitan, A.I. Kuindzhi, V.D. Polenov and many others. At different times, these artists drew inspiration from the extraordinary beauty of Russian nature, and achieved perfection in depicting it on canvas.
SCENERY is a word that means, except general view terrain 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”), environment, natural or man-transformed 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 spiritual world of people’s existence and feelings merge in harmony. 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 genera 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 paintings 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
Medals) works of other genres. By depicting the phenomena and forms of man’s natural environment, the artist expresses both his attitude towards nature and the perception of it by contemporary society. Because of this, the landscape acquires emotionality and significant ideological content.
Images of nature were found back in the Neolithic era (symbols of the firmament, luminaries, cardinal directions, earth's surface, boundaries of the inhabited world). The reliefs and paintings of the countries of the Ancient East (Babylonia, Assyria, Egypt), mainly in scenes of wars, hunting and fishing, contain individual elements of the landscape, especially multiplied and concretized in the ancient Egyptian art of the New Kingdom. Landscape motifs became widespread in the art of Crete in the 16th-15th centuries. BC e. (see Aegean art), where for the first time the impression of an emotionally convincing unity of fauna, flora and natural elements was achieved. Landscape elements of ancient Greek art are usually inseparable from the image of man; The Hellenistic and ancient Roman landscapes, which included elements of perspective (illusionistic paintings, mosaics, so-called pictorial reliefs), had somewhat greater independence. This era is characterized by the image of nature, perceived as the sphere of idyllic existence of man and the gods. In the medieval art of Europe, landscape elements (especially views of cities and individual buildings) often served as a means of conventional spaces and structures (for example, “hills” or “chambers” in Russian icons), in most cases turning into laconic indications of the scene of action. In a number of compositions, landscape details formed speculative and theological schemes that reflected medieval ideas about the Universe.
In the medieval art of the countries of the Muslim East, elements of landscape were initially represented very sparingly, with the exception of rare examples based on Hellenistic traditions. From the XIII-XIV centuries. they occupy an increasingly significant place in book miniatures, where in the 15th-16th centuries. in the works of the Tabriz school and the Herat school, landscape backgrounds, distinguished by the radiant purity of colors, evoke the idea of nature as an enclosed magical garden. Landscape details achieve great emotional power in the medieval art of India (especially in miniatures starting from the Mughal school), Indochina and Indonesia (for example, images of tropical forests in reliefs on mythological and epic themes). Landscape occupies an extremely important position as an independent genre in the painting of medieval China, where ever-renewing nature was considered the most visual embodiment of the world law (Tao); this concept finds direct expression in the Shan Shui (Gur-Wood) type of landscape. In the perception of the Chinese landscape, a significant role was played by poetic inscriptions, symbolic motifs that personified sublime spiritual qualities (mountain pine, bamboo, wild plum "meihua"), human figures residing in a space that seems limitless due to the introduction of vast mountain panoramas into the composition, water surfaces and foggy haze. The individual spatial plans of the Chinese landscape are not delimited, but flow freely into one another, subordinate to the general decorative design of the picture plane. Among the largest masters of Chinese landscape (which emerged in the 6th century) are Guo Xi (11th century), Ma Yuan, Xia Gui (both - the end of the 12th - the first half of the 13th century), Mu-qi (the first half of the 13th century) . Japanese landscape, formed by the 12th-13th centuries. and was strongly influenced by Chinese art, is distinguished by its heightened graphic quality (for example, in Sesshu, 15th century), the tendency to highlight individual, most decoratively advantageous motifs, and finally (in the 18th-19th centuries), a more active role of man in nature ( landscapes by Katsushika Hokusai and Ando Hiroshige).
In Western European art of the XII-XV centuries. the tendency towards a sensually convincing interpretation of the world leads to the fact that the landscape background begins to be understood as a fundamentally important part of a work of fine art. Conventional (golden or ornamental) backgrounds are replaced by landscape ones, often turning into a wide panorama of the world (Giotto and A. Lorenzetti in Italy of the 14th century; Burgundian and Dutch miniaturists of the 14th-15th centuries; brothers H. and J. van Eyck in the Netherlands; K . Witz and L. Moser in Switzerland and Germany in the first half of the 15th century). Renaissance artists turned to direct study of nature, created sketches and watercolor sketches, developed principles for the perspective construction of landscape space, guided by the concepts of the rationality of the laws of the universe and reviving the idea of landscape as a real human habitat (the latter point was especially characteristic of the Italian masters of the Quattrocento). An important place in the history of landscape is occupied by the work of A. Mantegna, P. Uccello, Piero della Francesca, Leonardo da Vinci, Gentile and Giovanni Bellini, Giorgione, Titian, Tintoretto in Italy, Hugo van der Goes, Hertgen tot Sint-Jans, H. Bosch in the Netherlands, A. Durer, M. Niethardt in Germany, masters of the Danube school in Germany and Austria. In the art of the Renaissance, the prerequisites were formed for the emergence of an independent landscape genre, which took shape initially in graphics (A. Durer and the Danube school) and in small pictorial compositions, where the image of nature either constitutes the only content of the picture (A. Altdorfer) or reigns supreme over the foreground scenes ( Dutchman I. Patinir). If Italian artists sought to emphasize the harmonious consonance of human and natural principles (Giorgione, Titian), and to embody the idea of an ideal architectural environment in urban landscape backgrounds (Raphael), then German masters were especially willing to turn to wild nature, often giving it a catastrophically stormy appearance. The combination of landscape and genre aspects, typical of the Dutch landscape, leads to the most striking results in the works of P. Bruegel the Elder, the distinctive features of which are not only the grandeur of panoramic compositions, but also the deepest penetration into the nature of folk life, organically connected with the landscape environment. In the XVI - early XVII centuries. A number of Dutch masters (Herri met de Bles, Josse de Momper, Gillis van Coninksloe) intertwined traditional features of the Renaissance landscape, subtle observations of life, with manneristic fantasy, emphasizing the artist’s subjective and emotional attitude to the world.
By the beginning of the 17th century. in the works of the Italian An. Carracci, the Dutchman P. Briel and the German A. Elsheimer formulate the principles of an “ideal” landscape, subordinate to the idea of a reasonable law hidden under the external diversity of various aspects of nature. In the art of classicism, the system of conventional, backstage, three-plane composition was finally consolidated, and the fundamental difference between a sketch or sketch and a completed landscape painting was affirmed. Along with this, the landscape becomes a bearer of high ethical content, which is especially characteristic of the works of N. Poussin and C. Lorrain, whose works represent two versions of the “ideal” landscape - heroic and idyllic. In the Baroque landscape (Flemish P. P. Rubens, Italians S. Rosa and A. Magnasco), the elemental power of nature takes precedence, sometimes seeming to suppress man. Elements of painting from life, in the open air (see Plein air) appear in the landscapes of D. Velazquez, marked by extraordinary freshness of perception. Dutch painters and graphic artists of the 17th century. (J. van Goyen, H. Segers, J. van Ruisdael, M. Hobbema, Rembrandt, J. Wermeer of Delft), developing in detail the light-air perspective and the system of shades-values, combined in their works a poetic feeling of the natural life of nature, its eternal variability , the idea of the grandeur of endless natural spaces with the idea of the close connection of nature with the everyday existence of man. Dutch masters created diverse types of landscapes (including marina and cityscapes).
Since the 17th century Topographical landscape views became widespread (engravers were the German M. Merian and the Czech V. Gollar), the development of which was largely predetermined by the use of a camera obscura, which made it possible to transfer individual motifs onto canvas or paper with unprecedented precision. This kind of landscape in the 18th century. reaches its peak in the veditas of Canaletto and B. Belotto, saturated with air and light, in the works of F. Guardi, which open a qualitatively new stage in the history of landscape, and stand out for their masterly reproduction of the changing light-air environment. View landscape in the 18th century. played a decisive role in the development of landscape in those European countries where, until the 18th century. there was no independent landscape genre (including in Russia, where the largest representatives of this type of landscape were the graphic artists A.F. Zubov, M.I. Makhaev, and the painter F.Ya. Alekseev). A special place is occupied by the graphic landscapes of G.B. Piranesi, who romanticized ruins and monuments of ancient architecture and endowed them with superhuman grandeur. The tradition of the “ideal” landscape acquired an exquisitely decorative interpretation in the Rococo era (Landscape depicting the ruins of the Frenchman Y. Robert), but in general the “ideal” landscape, which took (under the name historical or mythological) a secondary position in the classicist system of genres, throughout the 18th century V. degenerates into an academic direction that subordinates natural motifs to the abstract laws of classic composition. Pre-Romantic trends can be discerned in the intimate and lyrical park backgrounds in the paintings of A. Watteau, J. O. Fragonard in France, as well as in the works of the founders of the English school of landscape - T. Gainsborough, R. Wilson.
At the end of the 18th - first half of the 19th century. the landscape is dominated by the tendencies of romanticism (J. Crome, J. S. Cotman, J. R. Cozens, J. M. W. Turner in Great Britain; J. Michel in France; K. D. Friedrich, L. Richter in Germany; J. A. Koch in Austria; J. K. K. Dahl in Norway; landscape also played a huge role in the works of F. Goya and T. Gericault). The importance of landscape in the artistic system of romanticism is explained by the fact that the romantics brought the life of the human soul closer to the life of nature, seeing a return to the natural environment as a means to correct moral and social imperfections of man. They showed special sensitivity to the individual uniqueness of individual states of nature and the uniqueness of national landscapes. The latter features are extremely characteristic of the work of the Englishman J. Constable, who most contributed to the evolution of the landscape to real images that preserve the freshness of the full-scale sketch. Generalization, poetic clarity of perception of the world, as well as interest in the problems of the plein air are characteristic of the masters who stand at the origins of the national schools of European realistic landscapes (the early C. Corot in France; partly C. Blechen in Germany; A. A. Ivanov, partly S. F. . Shchedrin and M.I. Lebedev in Russia).
Representatives of realistic landscape in the middle and second half of the 19th century. (Coro, masters of the Barbizon school, G. Courbet, J. F. Millet, E. Boudin in France; Macchiaioli in Italy; A. Menzel and partly the Düsseldorf school in Germany; J. B. Jongkind and the Hague school in Holland, etc. ) gradually eliminated the literary associativity of the romantic landscape, trying to show the intrinsic value of nature through revealing the objective essence of the processes occurring in it. Landscape painters of this period sought naturalness and simplicity of composition (in particular, abandoning panoramic views in most cases), and developed in detail the light-and-shadow and value relationships that made it possible to convey the material palpability of the natural environment. The ethical and philosophical sound of the landscape, inherited from romanticism, now takes on a more democratic direction, manifested in the fact that people from the people and scenes of rural labor were increasingly included in the landscape.
In the Russian landscape of the 19th century. romantic traditions play a leading role in the works of M. N. Vorobyov and I. K. Aivazovsky. In the second half of the 19th century. There was a flourishing of the realistic landscape (the foundations of which were laid in the works of A. G. Venetsianov and especially A. A. Ivanov), closely associated with the activities of the Wanderers. Overcoming the artificiality and theatricality of the academic landscape, Russian artists turned to their native nature (L. L. Kamenev, M. K. Klodt), the motives of which are particularly monumental and epic in scope in the works of I. I. Shishkin. The tendency to depict transitional states of nature, the lyrical richness characteristic of the work of A. K. Savrasov, takes on a dramatic and intense hue in F. A. Vasiliev. Late romantic trends are manifested in the works of A. I. Kuindzhi, who combined a passion for strong lighting effects with a decorative interpretation of the picture plane. At the end of the 19th century. the line of emotional-lyrical landscape, often imbued with motifs of civil grief, is continued in the so-called mood landscape; Landscapes of this kind include the works of V. D. Polenov, marked by soft contemplation, and especially the canvases of I. I. Levitan, who combined intimate psychologism and the finest transfer of states of nature with a sublimely philosophical interpretation of landscape motifs.
Landscape acquired dominant significance among the masters of impressionism (C. Monet, C. Pissarro, A. Sisley, etc.), who considered working in the open air an indispensable condition for creating a landscape image. The most important component of the landscape, the Impressionists made a vibrating, light-air environment rich in colorful shades, enveloping objects and ensuring the visual indissolubility of nature and man. Trying to capture the diverse variability of the states of nature, they often created landscape series united by one motif (Monet). Their works also reflected the dynamics of modern urban life, thanks to which the urban landscape acquired equal rights with images of nature. At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. In the landscape, several directions are emerging that develop the principles of the impressionistic landscape and at the same time enter into an antagonistic relationship with them. P. Cezanne asserted in his works the monumental power and clear constructiveness of natural landscapes. J. Seurat subordinated landscape motifs to strictly calibrated, planar and decorative structures. V. van Gogh strove for increased, often tragic, psychological associativity of landscape images, giving individual details of the landscape an almost human animation. In the works of P. Gauguin, close to the landscape of symbolism and distinguished by the sonority of rhythmic local color planes, the image of an idyll landscape is radically rethought. Artists associated with symbolism and the Art Nouveau style (Nabi in France, F. Hodler in Switzerland, E. Munch in Norway, A. Gallen-Kallela in Finland) introduced into the landscape the idea of the mysterious kinship between man and “matter.” lands" (from here come the types of landscape-dream and landscape-memory, popular during this period), played in their compositions with various kinds of "through forms" (branches, roots, stems, etc.), the ornamental arrangement of which creates the illusion of direct imitation of rhythms nature itself. At the same time, the search for a generalized image of the homeland, typical of national romantic movements, intensified, often saturated with folklore or historical reminiscences and combining the most established signs of the national landscape (the Pole F. Ruszczyc, the Czech A. Slavichek, the Romanian S. Lukyan, the Latvian V. Purvit).
In the art of the 20th century. a number of masters strive to find the most stable features of a particular landscape motif, clearing it of everything “transitory” (representatives of Cubism), others, with the help of jubilant or dramatically intense color harmonies, emphasize the internal dynamics of the landscape, and sometimes its national identity (representatives of Fauvism and close them masters in France, Yugoslavia, Poland, and expressionism in Germany, Austria and Belgium), others, partly under the influence of art photography, shift the main emphasis to the whimsicality and psychological expressiveness of the motif (representatives of surrealism). In the work of a number of representatives of these movements, the tendency to deform the landscape image, often turning the landscape into a pretext for abstract constructions, was a way of transition to abstract art (a similar role was played by the landscape, for example, in the work of the Dutchman P. Mondrian, the Swiss P. Klee and the Russian V. V. Kandinsky). In the 20th century In Europe and America, the industrial landscape became widespread, often interpreting the world of technology as a kind of anti-nature, irresistibly hostile to people (C. Demuth, N. Spencer, C. Sheeler in the USA, P. Bruening in Germany). The cityscape of the Futurists and Expressionists often takes on a sharply aggressive or alienated appearance, imbued with moods of tragic hopelessness or melancholy. This feature is also inherent in the work of a number of realist masters (M. Utrillo in France, E. Hopper in the USA). At the same time, a landscape of a realistic and national-romantic nature is rapidly developing, in which images of pristinely beautiful nature often turn into a direct antithesis of capitalist civilization (B. Palencia in Spain, Kjarval in Iceland, the “group of seven” in Canada, R. Kent in the USA, A. Namatjira in Australia).
In the Russian landscape at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries. realistic traditions of the second half of the 19th century. intertwined with the influences of Impressionism and Art Nouveau. Close to the landscape-mood of Levitan, but more chamber in spirit are the works of V. A. Serov, P. I. Petrovichev, L. V. Turzhansky, depicting predominantly modest views, devoid of external showiness and distinguished by the etude spontaneity of composition and color. The combination of lyrical intonations with increased sonority of color is characteristic of the work of K. A. Korovin and especially I. E. Grabar. National-romantic features are inherent in the works of A. A. Rylov and the landscape-genre compositions of K. F. Yuon; folklore, historical or literary moment plays an important role in A. M. Vasnetsov, M. V. Nesterov, N. K. Roerich, as well as in the “heroic” landscape of K. F. Bogaevsky. Among the masters of the "World of Art" the type of landscape-memory was cultivated (L. S. Bakst, K. A. Somov), historical and architectural views imbued with elegiac notes arose (A. N. Benois, E. E. Lansere, A. P. . Ostroumova-Lebedeva), highly dramatic urban landscape (M. V. Dobuzhinsky). Among the variations on the theme of an surreal dream landscape in the spirit of V. E. Borisov-Musatov, typical of the Blue Rose artists, stand out the Orientalist compositions of P. V. Kuznetsov and M. S. Saryan, as well as paintings by N. P. Krymov, striving for strict balance in coloristic and compositional solutions. In the landscape of the masters of the “Jack of Diamonds,” the richness of the color scheme and the temperamental, free pictorial manner reveal the plastic richness and colorfulness of nature.
For the Soviet landscape, developing in line with socialist realism, the most characteristic images are those that reveal the life-affirming beauty of the world, its close connection with the transformative activities of people. In this area, masters emerged who emerged in the pre-revolutionary period, but after the October Revolution of 1917 entered a new phase of creativity (V.N. Baksheev, Grabar, Krymov, A.V. Kuprin, Ostroumova-Lebedeva, Rylov, Yuon, etc.), as well as artists whose activities are entirely connected with Soviet times (S. V. Gerasimov, A. M. Gritsai, N. M. Romadin, V. V. Meshkov, S. A. Chuikov). In the 20s the Soviet industrial landscape is emerging (B. N. Yakovlev and others). inspired by the pathos of socialist construction, a type of memorial landscape takes shape (for example, the canvases of V.K. Byalynitsky-Birulya with views of Lenin Hills and Yasnaya Polyana). In the 30-50s. Monumental landscape paintings, based on a thorough rethinking of the sketch material, are becoming more widespread. In the works of Soviet landscape painters, a synthetic image of the Motherland increasingly emerges through the features of a specific locality, due to which even views traditionally associated with the romantic concept of landscape (for example, landscapes of the Crimea or the Far North) lose the touch of exotic alienation. Artists are attracted to motifs that allow them to show the interaction of industrial and natural forms, dynamic shifts in the spatial perception of the world associated with the accelerating pace of modern life (A. A. Deineka, G. G. Nissky, P. P. Ossovsky). In the republican schools of Soviet landscape painting, the leading role is played by the works of I. I. Bokshai, A. A. Shovkunenko in Ukraine, D. Kakabadze in Georgia, Saryan in Armenia, U. Tansykbaev in Uzbekistan, A. Zhmuidzinavichyus and A. Gudaitis in Lithuania, E. Keats in Estonia. In the 60-80s. The principle of a landscape-picture retains its importance, but the tendency towards heightened expressiveness of texture and color, towards naked compositional rhythms that actively influence the audience, comes to the fore. Among the most significant Soviet landscape painters who emerged in the 50-70s are L. I. Brodskaya, B. F. Domashnikov, E. I. Zverkov, T. Salakhov, V. M. Sidorov, V. F. Stozharov , I. Shvazhas.
Lit.: Fedorov-A. Davydov, Russian landscape of the 18th - early 19th centuries, M., 1953; his, Soviet landscape, M., 1958; his, Russian landscape of the late XIX - early XX centuries, M., 1974; F. Maltseva, Masters of Russian realistic landscape, V. 1-2, M., 1953-59; Masters of Soviet landscape about landscape, M., 1963; N. A. Vinogradova, Chinese landscape painting, M., 1972; N. Kalitina, French landscape painting. 1870-1970, L., 1972; Problems of landscape in European art of the 19th century, M., 1978; O. R. Nikulina, Nature through the eyes of an artist, M., 1982; Santini P. S., Modern landscape painting, L, 1972; Pochat G., Figur und Landschaft, B.-N. Y., 1973; Clark K., Landscape into art, L., 1976; Wedewer R., Landshaftsmalerei zwischen Traum und Wirklichkeit, Köln, 1978; Baur Ch., Landschaftsmalerei der Romantik, Munch., 1979; Strisik P., The art of landscape painting, N. Y., 1980.
