Famous Landscapes
Landscape Paintings by Famous Artists: Plein-Air/Studio Landscapes.

The Burning of the Houses of Lords
and Commons (1835) by William Turner.

WORLDS TOP LANDSCAPES
For the greatest view painters, see:
Best Landcape Artists.

Celebrated Landscape Paintings

Up until the late seventeenth century, hardly any landscape painting was produced that was devoid of narrative. This was due to the influence of Academic art, which ranked landscapes low on the hierarchy of genres. Although some pure landscapes were painted in the 17th and 18th centuries (notably by the Venetian School), it wasn't until the 19th century - thanks to the English School, and the French Barbizon School painters - that the independent genre of landscape painting really took off. Other notable groups of 19th century European landscape artists include: the Norwich School, the Newlyn School, and the St Ives School. In America, the Hudson River School and the Luminism group were the leading exponents of scenic art.

View of Delft (1660-1) by Jan Vermeer.

Ville d'Avray (1867) by Corot.

Nocturne: Blue And Silver Chelsea
(1871) by James McNeil Whistler.

Here is our selected list of the best landscape paintings, including scenic views of countryside, seascapes and townscapes by Old Masters as well as more modern artists.

Famous Landscapes of the Sixteenth Century

Giorgione: The Tempest (c.1506).
Albrecht Altdorfer: Landscape with Footbridge (1518). Danube School.
Joachim Patenier: Journey Into the Underworld (1522).
Albrecht Durer: Watercolours of his journey to Italy (1490s).
Pieter Bruegel The Elder (1525-69): Hunters in the Snow (c.1565).
El Greco: View of Toledo (c.1597).

CLASSIFICATION OF THE ARTS
For a guide to the different forms
of fine and decorative arts,
please see: TYPES OF ART.

Famous Landscapes of the Seventeenth Century

Salomon van Ruysdael: Wooded River Landscape (c.1640).
Claude Lorrain: Landscape with the marriage of Issac and Rebekah (1648).
Aelbert Cuyp: Dordrecht from the North (1650).
Jacob van Ruisdael: A Waterfall in a Rocky Landscape (c.1660).
Jan Vermeer: View of Delft (1661).

Famous Landscapes of the Eighteenth Century

Jean-Antoine Watteau: Pilgrimage to Cythera (1717).
Canaletto: The Basin of St Marco, Ascension Day (1740).
Thomas Gainsborough: Cornard Wood (1748).
Bernardo Bellotto: Entrance to the Grand Canal, Venice (1741).
Richard Wilson: The Destruction of Niobe's Children (1760).
William Marlowe: The Pont du Gard Nimes (1767).
Jean-Honore Fragonard: The Swing (1767).
Francesco Zuccarelli: An Italianate River Landscape.
Giovanni Panini: Ruins with Figures.
Francesco Guardi: Landscape with Ruins (1775).
John Robert Cozens: London From Greenwich Hill (1791).
Thomas Girtin: The White House Chelsea (1799).

Famous Landscapes of the Nineteenth Century

English landscape painting and the advent of French Impressionism in the last quarter of the century each boosted the quality and appeal of landscape painting. The Barbizon School led to a mini-Renaissance of plein-air painting across Europe, as far as the Wanderers Movement in Russia. For analysis of great landscapes, and other genres, see: Famous Paintings Analyzed.

John Sell Cotman: Chirk Aquaduct (1804).
John Crome:The Poringland Oak (c.1810) Tate, London
Casper David Friedrich: Winter Landscape (1811).
John Constable: Boat-building Near Flatford Mill (1815), Hay Wain (1821).
JMW Turner: Hannibal and His Army Crossing the Alps (1812), The Burning of the Houses of Lords and Commons (1835), The Fighting Temeraire (1839);
Thomas Cole: The Last of the Mohicans (1826).
Theodore Rousseau: The Forest of Fontainebleau, Morning (1850).
George Caleb Bingham: Fur Trappers Descending the Missouri (1845).
John Martin: The Great Day of His Wrath (1853).
Frederic Edwin Church: Cotopaxi (1862).
Camille Corot: Souvenir de Mortefontaine (1864), Ville d'Avray (1875).
Whistler: Harmony in Grey, Chelsea in Ice (1864).
Claude Monet: Impression Sunrise (1873), the Haystack and Water Lily series.
Alfred Sisley: Women Going to the Woods (1866), Snow at Louveciennes (1878), Floods at Port Marly (1890), The Moret Bridge in the Sun (1892), The Bridge at Moret (1893).
Atkinson Grimshaw: Nightfall Down the Thames (1880).
Edouard Vuillard: In the Garden (1894).
Pierre-Auguste Renoir: The Bridge of the Railway at Chatou (1881).
Camille Pissaro: Autumn (1870), Landscape at Chaponval (1880).
Vincent Van Gogh: Cherry Tree (1888); The Old Mill (1888); Bridge at Arles (1888); View of Arles with Irises (1888); Cypresses (1889); View of Arles (Flowering Orchards) (1889); Starry Night (1889); The Olive Pickers (1889); Wheat Field with Crows (1890).
Georges Seurat: A Sunday Afternoon on Island of La Grange Jatte (1884).
P.S. Kroyer: Summer Evening on the Southern Beach (1893).
Winslow Homer: Eight Bells (1886).

Famous Landscapes of the Twentieth Century

Paul Signac: The Papal Palace, Avignon (1900).
Picasso: Blue Roofs (1901).
Paul Cezanne: Montagne Sainte-Victoire with Trees and a House; La Montagne Sainte-Victoire (1904-6).
Alexei von Jawlensky: Landscape, Murnau (1909).
Oskar Kokoschka: View of the Thames in the Evening (1926).
Max Ernst: The Entire City (1935).
Paul Nash: Dead Sea (1940-41).;
Ben Nicholson: St Ives, Cornwall (1943-45).
Andrew Wyeth: Christina's World (1948).

For examples of Irish painters, see Irish Landscape Artists.

• For more about the different types of painting (portraits, landscapes, still-lifes etc) see: Painting Genres.
• For more about landscape paintings, see: Art Encyclopedia