Visual Arts History 1040 Lecture : 19th Century Landscape
9 Feb 2012
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Document Summary
Landscape in the 19th century became a genre of its own. The notion of the picturesque became particularly resonant in the romantic era and in the 19th century especially in northern europe they shared this sentiment. In landscape artists found an ideal subject to express the romantic theme of the soul unified with the natural world. All nature was mysteriously permeated by being and landscape artists had the task of interpreting signs, symbols, and emblems of universal spirit disguised with visible material things. Artists no longer merely beheld a landscape but rather participated in its spirit becoming translators of nature s transcendent meanings. By john constable, 1821, oil on canvas, 4 3 x 6 2 . After the industrial revolution there were a number of displaced farmers who could not afford to farm their land and the artist wanted to address the agrarian situation in his works.
