Oil Landscapes

Oil on canvas. During the Baroque era, landscapes began to become popular. Ruysdael depicts Dutch landscape with precision and sensitivity.

Oil on canvas. This work was most likely a depiction of the Dutch scenery. For the Dutch, land was important and they didn't take it for granted because they just regained their independence back from the Spanish. It was important for these artists to master the clouds and surrounding nature.

Oil on canvas. Along with van Ruisdael's other works, Canal with the Bridge is also most likely part of the Dutch scenery. The artist shows a peaceful scene of everyday Dutch life in the seventeenth century,

Oil on canvas. Lorrain and Poussin were rivals in fame. They were the top two landscape artists, however, they have different styles. Lorrain has a softer style and focused his themes on the beauty of a broad sky.

Oil on canvas. In this work, Lorrain paints a shepherd playing a flute while one nymph plays a tambourine and the other dances with a satyr. Between the foreground and the background, the light becomes more radiant.

Oil on canvas. Poussin's landscapes don't represent a specific time and place, rather they are idealized settings for noble themes.

Oil on canvas. Aelbert Cuyp was a specialist in landscape painting. He carefully observed and had deep respect for understanding the Dutch lands and it's seen in his works.

Oil on canvas. This painting shows the calm and peacefulness of the Dutch city, Dordrecht. In this time frame, many soldiers were anchored to Dordrecht. The morning light beaming in with the scene of the church makes it more dramatic.

Oil on canvas. Cuyp has his own style and one of his main themes was incorporating cows in many of his landscape paintings. They refer to the Dutch agriculture. Everything in the painting is affected by the quality of the light striking it. Even the weeds, stumps and grasses of the foreground are lit up in strange patterns by the slanting light of the setting sun. Beyond the foreground ridge, we have to peer through the glowing mist to make out the river and distant mountains. Color is again dictated by light, with the golds and blues of the sunset predominating over the greens and browns of the grass and the earth. There is a ring of colored air surrounding the sun, almost like a rainbow, which extends over the earth as well as the sky.  

Oil on canvas. As well as Cuyp's other works of art, Cattle near a River also depicts cows and a shepherd. It symbolizes the demand for dairy products such as butter and cheese, which made urban areas more popular.

Oil on canvas. Cuyp includes his recurring theme of the cows and shepherds. He tends to capture every single detail in all of his landscapes. The brushstrokes are seen and not glazed over like Italian Renaissance paintings, but they are not like Impressionist brushstrokes.

Oil on canvas. Eckersberg had a passion for ships which explains why many of the paintings have the repeating theme of the marine landscapes. The experience of sailing out on the open seas, gave new dimension to his marine paintings, that until that point tended to be calm depictions. There was more attention given to movement and to waves

Oil on canvas. During the Romantic era, landscape paintings were respected because of its ideal form. Nature was admired because of their spirit and was a lot more appreciated.

Oil on canvas. Turner's work was the definition of landscapes during the Romantic era. Turner's "turbulent swirls" is easily seen in the sky portion of this painting. The colors used reveal passion and energy.

Oil on canvas. Here Turner has used Baiae, in the Bay of Naples, as the backdrop for the myth of Apollo and the Cumaean Sibyl. The latter asked the Roman god to grant her life for as many years as the grains of sand she could hold in her hand. The passage of time has wrought changes to the Roman architecture of the resort, but the golden beauty of the landscape remains undiminished.

Oil on canvas. Like many of his other works, Turner has boats and ships in his paintings. The fishing and smaller boats are juxtaposed with a man-of-war, perhaps the naval guard ship stationed at the Nore.

Oil on canvas. Bierstadt's paintings were very dramatic and he adopted devices associated with the theater. The contrast of the darkened proscenium and wings with the light-struck sky and water enhances the scene.

Oil on canvas. Again, Bierstadt's landscape is dramatic in the way the storm is dark and the sun shines through the mountains. His panoramic landscapes presents the breath-taking natural beauty of the American West.

Oil on canvas. The panoramic landscape is awe-inspiring. Bierstadt depicts the sun's rays breaking through the clouds overhead, which suggests a heavenly consecration of land. His paintings reinforce the idea of Manifest Destiny.

Oil on canvas. Church became famous for his paintings of natural wonders like Niagara Falls, icebergs in the Arctic, and volcanoes in South America. He sketched this volcano, called Pichincha, on a trip to Ecuador in 1857, but made the painting ten years later in the comfort of his studio in New York.

Oil on canvas. Constable's deep, consuming attachment to the landscape of this rural area is a constant factor in his works. His studies and sketchbooks reveal his complete absorption in the pictorial elements of his native countryside: the movement of cloud masses, the feel of the lowlands crossed by rivers and streams, and the dramatic play of light over all.

Oil on canvas. John Constable studied each of his landscapes sufficiently. This allowed him to produce in his paintings the convincing sense of reality that won so much praise from his contemporaries.

Oil on canvas. Friedrich, as well as many other of the Romantic artists, included every detail of the oak and his surroundings. The oak tree takes on the role of the mediator between heaven and Earth,

Oil on canvas. Thomas Cole was part of the group known as the Hudson River School. Majority of their landscape paintings were based on New York State's Hudson River Valley.

Oil on canvas. Cole split his landscape in half; on the right side it shows the bright sun coming through and on the left the clouds surround the area. The crashing of the waves are also detailed and looks like it can be a snapshot.

Oil on canvas. In the painting, Cole depicts a man on top of a mountain, stranded and strapped. He seems to be in a similar position to Christ's crucifixion.

Oil on canvas. Kroyer painted many beach scenes featuring both recreation life on the beach (bathers, strollers), and local fishermen.

Oil on canvas. The bright blue color of the ocean captures your eye as well as the two figures standing near the center of the work. The blueness of the water captures the beauty of nature.

Oil on canvas. Gifford was part of the second generation of landscape painters who followed in the path of Thomas Cole. He and his peers, such as Frederic Church and Albert Bierstadt, were quick to capitalize on the popular demand for paintings that depicted America’s natural splendor. He sought to capture the effects of light and atmosphere that were unique to the places that they chose to paint.

Oil on canvas. saw and rendered only the general effects of nature, thereby creating a personal, ideal style influenced by Claude Lorrain and the Dutch landscape tradition. He concentrated on Italian landscapes and landscapes based on classical literature.

Oil on canvas. The setting sun, luminous mists, and tidy farm buildings present a romantic image of man and nature in harmony. Cropsey preferred painting autumn landscapes.

Oil on canvas. This painting was originally sent to an art salon but was rejected along with many other works by Monet and other Impressionist artists. They believed that the leaving of the brush strokes was not professional and definitely different from the perfect Renaissance paintings.

Oil on canvas. Monet wanted to capture every moment of a water and flower reflection. In 1910, Monet achieved the style of departure for an almost abstract art.

Oil on canvas. The bold light effects of the moonlit harbor of Honfleur, Normandy contribute to the scene's dramatic impact. Dark clouds obscure the moon but its presence is confirmed by the brilliant patches of light and reflections in the water. These are echoed by the lighthouse's beam and its reflection. The sailing boats and steam ship provide strong dark silhouettes against the elements.

OIl on canvas. In his treatment of the sea surface Monet’s Impressionist technique can be seen fully developed. Shadows, reflections and movements are depicted in a series of short, curved brushstrokes in pure, unmixed pigments. If one examines the painting from a distance while peering with half-open eyes, the elements flow together into an optic unity and the painting’s surface seems almost to vibrate.

Oil on canvas. Majority of Renoir's landscapes were done in the countryside surrounding Paris. This view of a cliff at l'Estaque, near the Mediterranean port of Marseilles, was painted when Renoir was visiting his friend Paul Cézanne, who painted several views of the same site.

Oil on canvas. The snow is not omnipresent; rather, it reflects the bluish sky and absorbs the shadow of the greenish, rust-colored stand of trees that occupies a large portion of the scene, in the background of which emerge the buildings of the nearby town.

Oil on canvas. In his paintings, he continued his interest in soft tonal qualities, but he adopted an Impressionist technique, painting with broken brushwork and blending his colors directly on canvas.

Oil on canvas. Post -Impressionist works challenged the works during the Impressionist era. Van Gogh painted this seascape outdoors. In fast, loose brushstrokes he tried to capture the colour of the sea. He described it as 'a colour like mackerel, in other words, changing — you don't always know if it's green or purple — you don't always know if it's blue — because a second later, its changing reflection has taken on a pink or grey hue.'

Oil on canvas. In 1889, van Gogh was voluntarily admitted to the mental hospital Saint-Paul-de-Mausole. The motif is his interpretation of the view from his room, which he depicted in several versions with varying conditions of weather and light. The serpentine brush-strokes and clear contours are characteristic of the late van Gogh. The rolling cloud formations herald a less sober mode of painting than Impressionism.

Oil on canvas. Van Gogh wrote to his brother Theo about this painting in 1888: 'A meadow full of very yellow buttercups, a ditch with iris plants with green leaves, with purple flowers, the town in the background, some grey willow trees—a strip of blue sky. If they don't mow the meadow I'd like to do this study again, because the subject matter was really beautiful and I had trouble finding the composition. A little town surrounded by countryside entirely covered in yellow and purple flowers. That would really be a Japanese dream, you know.'

Oil on canvas. In the summer of 1887 Van Gogh often worked on the banks of the Seine at Asnières, a suburb of Paris. He was under the spell of French Impressionism, but had also been introduced to the latest painting technique, Pointillism. Each of these committed bright color to canvas, in dabs and dots, respectively.

Oil on canvas. The mountain of Sainte-Victoire, a distinctive landmark near Aix-en-Provence, was one of Cézanne's favourite subjects. He never tired of exploring its structure and changing appearance.

OIl on canvas. Mont Sainte-Victoire is part of a range of limestone hills and mountains to the south of Aix-en- Provence, the town in which Cézanne was born. The yellow building in the left center of the painting is the Château Noir. A dense growth of trees occupies the foreground. The dark green above the mountain on the right is a cluster of pine needles from a branch of a large pine tree near the spot where Cézanne painted this work. The contrast between the cool colors of nature and the warm colors of artificial structures weaves a magnificent color symphony in this painting.

Oil on canvas. Seurat combines the talents of the theoretician and the poet. Methodically applying laws of color, he chose pigments that transcribe the purity of coastal air and light.

Oil on canvas. Seurat's use of short, unblended, strongly coloured brushstrokes has created a vivid work. Distant farm buildings and houses are seen across a field of alfalfa (luzerne), punctuated throughout by red poppy flowers.

Oil on canvas. This painting is one in a series of seascapes that Seurat painted in the French coastal village of Grandcamp during the summer of 1885. Short horizontal brushstrokes fill the sky and sea, whereas the land is composed of dots of color. Seurat added the painted border later to complement the colors on the canvas and intensify its luminosity.

Oil on canvas. Seurat has drawn this landscapes many times. He uses a technique called pointillism. As you get closer to the painting, you can see the dots clearly. As you move away, it blends together.