Top 100 - The 100 most famous landscapes in painting
The 100 most famous landscapes in painting
From Brueghel to Van Gogh: a hundred horizons that transformed light, distance and our very idea of landscape
From the Flemish landscape to modern visions, these paintings tell how the sky, light and territory have become subjects in their own right.
One hundred paintings and five centuries of horizons
The landscapes that changed our way of seeing
Between the Renaissance and the 17th century, the landscape gradually gained its autonomy in European painting. Patinier, Brueghel, Claude Lorrain and Poussin transform the decor into the main structure. Ruins, rivers, ports and seasons become capable of carrying a narrative without depending entirely on the figures.
A famous landscape is not only a beautiful viewpoint: it is an invention of light, distance and time that painting makes impossible to forget.Switch to images
Works in pictures
Van Gogh, Friedrich, Monet, Constable, Turner, Brueghel and Cézanne open the route with the most instantly recognizable images.
#1
Starry Night
Above Saint-Rémy, Van Gogh's sky does not serve as a ceiling: it rotates, swells and carries the stars in great luminous currents. The black cypress connects the silent village to the stars, while the yellow moon responds to the tiny windows.
See this reproduction →
#2
The Traveler contemplating a sea of clouds
The character of "Traveler contemplating a sea of clouds", painted around 1818, turns his back on the viewer. Friedrich makes it less a portrait than an invitation to measure human ambition in the face of a world impossible to possess.
See this reproduction →
#3
Impression, Rising Sun
In Le Havre, Monet reduced the port to a few boats, chimneys, a blue mist and an orange sun whose reflection crosses the water. The quick key records an hour rather than an inventory. Presented in 1874, Impression, Rising Sun will give its name to impressionism. The sun is small; his career will be considerable.
See this reproduction →
#4
The Hay Cart
Constable completed "The Hay Cart" in 1821 based on memories and studies of the Stour Valley. The painting received little attention in London, then achieved great success at the Paris Salon of 1824.
See this reproduction →
#5
The Last Journey of the Bold
The Last Voyage of the Bold shows the old warship towed towards demolition by a small dark steamer. Turner contrasts the pale silhouette of the sailboat, hero of Trafalgar, with the modern machine which shoots under a setting sun incandescent. The painting becomes elegy of a technical world which disappears. The Bold survived the canons; he will not survive accounting progress.
See this reproduction →
#6
Hunters in the snow
Bruegel painted "Hunters in the Snow" in 1565 for Nicolaes Jonghelinck's cycle of seasons. Tired hunters and villagers on the ice give the cold a collective story.
See this reproduction →
#7
View of Toledo
El Greco painted "View of Toledo" around 1596-1600, moving some buildings to reinforce the city's silhouette. The stormy sky makes the landscape a spiritual portrait rather than a topographical survey.
See this reproduction →
#8
The Water Lilies Basin, green harmony
In The Water Lilies Basin, green harmony, Monet makes the Japanese bridge the hinge between water, willows and their reflections. The eye no longer knows very well where the foliage ends and the liquid mirror begins, which is precisely what it is the subject. Giverny becomes a laboratory of perception here: a simple basin obtains more depth than an entire lake, without ever leaving the garden.
See this reproduction →
#9
A wheat field with cypresses
Van Gogh painted the fields and cypresses of Saint-Rémy in 1889. He compared the cypress to a dark obelisk and sought to make it as personal a motif as sunflowers.
See this reproduction →
#10
The Sainte-Victoire Mountain seen from Lauves
From his workshop in Les Lauves, Cézanne took up the Sainte-Victoire mountain until the end of his life. The latest versions replace classical depth with colored planes which strongly marked Cubism.
See this reproduction →
#11
View of Delft
Vermeer painted "View of Delft" around 1660-1661 from a point south of the city. The light after the downpour distributes the importance of the buildings without transforming the port into a municipal inventory.
See this reproduction →
#12
The Monk by the sea
Friedrich places a tiny monk in front of a strip of dark sea and an immense sky which occupies almost the entire picture. No boat, no port, no anecdote reassures the eye. The shore becomes a measure of human solitude facing infinity. The monk has the whole beach to himself and obviously a lot to think about.
See this reproduction →
#13
Rain, Steam and Speed
Turner presented "Rain, Steam and Speed" in 1844, at a time when the railway was disrupting British distances. The locomotive passes through the rain as a new force entering the history of the landscape.
See this reproduction →
#14
The Heart of the Andes
Frederic Edwin Church unveiled "The Heart of the Andes" in 1859 in a spectacular production in New York. The painting summarizes several trips to South America inspired by the writings of Alexander von Humboldt.
See this reproduction →
#15
The Meander
Thomas Cole painted "The Meander" in 1836 after a European trip. His tiny self-portrait on the promontory pits American territory against the question of its future exploitation.
See this reproduction →
#16
Island of the Dead
Böcklin Island of the Dead shows a boat carrying a white coffin towards a rocky island closed by high cypresses. The still water, cliffs and funerary openings construct a place without explicit narrative, however immediately charged with farewell. Each version of the work preserves this monumental silence.
See this reproduction →
#17
The Reapers
Bruegel painted "The Reapers" in 1565 for his cycle of the seasons. The meal, the work and the heat of August give the vast landscape the density of a day lived. The diagonal of the field leads towards the sea and links the immediate effort of the peasants to the scale of the territory.
See this reproduction →
#18
Middelharnis Avenue
Hobbema dates "Avenue of Middelharnis" from 1689. The pruned trees and the perspective path show a landscape shaped by agriculture rather than nature remaining intact. The central gap catches the eye all the way to the bell tower, while the young trees remind us of the methodical management of land reclaimed from the water.
See this reproduction →
#19
The Embarkation of the Queen of Sheba
Claude Lorrain painted this imaginary port in 1648 linked to the departure of the Queen of Sheba. The biblical episode becomes above all a pretext for organizing morning light between architecture, ships and horizon.
See this reproduction →
#20
Among the Sierra Nevada, California
Bierstadt painted "Among the Sierra Nevada, California" in 1868 after his expeditions to the American West. He brings together several studies in a monumental vision intended for the East Coast public.
See this reproduction →From the Renaissance to the Northern schools, the mountain, the river, the city and the garden became autonomous subjects.
#21
The Tower of Babel
Bruegel's "Tower of Babel", dated 1563, transposes the biblical story into a gigantic construction site. The unfinished machines, workers and levels tell of pride through the very organization of the landscape.
See this reproduction →
#22
Odysseus mocking Polyphemus
Turner exhibited "Ulysses Mocking Polyphemus" in 1829. The ship and the mythological giant become almost secondary in front of a sunrise which carries all the tension of departure.
See this reproduction →
#23
The Course of the Empire: Desolation
"Desolation" closed the cycle of Thomas Cole’s "Course of the Empire" in 1836. The ruins invaded by vegetation transform the landscape into a political warning about the fragility of the powers. The solitary column and the moonlight reverse the grandeur of the previous imperial stage: nature survives power.
See this reproduction →
#24
Rue de Paris, rainy weather
Caillebotte presented "Rue de Paris, temps de rain" in 1877. The Haussmannian crossroads, the umbrellas and the cut framing give the modern city the scale of a historic landscape.
See this reproduction →
#25
The storm
Painted around 1506-1508, Giorgione's "The Tempest" remains famous for its unsolved story. The lightning, the ruins and the two figures make the landscape the main holder of the secret. However, the imminent storm connects the characters, architecture and vegetation in the same electrical expectation.
See this reproduction →
#26
Landscape with Saint Jerome
Patinier was among the first painters from the North to specialize in landscape. In this Saint Jerome, the saint becomes small in front of a mineral and river world built in bluish planes.
See this reproduction →
#27
Landscape with Phocion's funeral
Poussin painted "The Funeral of Phocion" in 1648. The body of the unjustly condemned general crosses an ordered landscape which opposes the permanence of the city to the errors of its citizens.
See this reproduction →
#28
Landscape with Orpheus and Eurydice
Chick painted "Landscape with Orpheus and Eurydice" around 1650. The drama of the serpent unfolds almost discreetly while Rome, the Tiber and the Castel Sant'Angelo compose an indifferent world.
See this reproduction →
#29
The Mill near Wijk bij Duurstede
Ruisdael painted the mill of Wijk bij Duurstede around 1670. The immense sky, the river and the wings of the mill give monumental dignity to an infrastructure of Dutch daily life.
See this reproduction →
#30
Bentheim Castle
Ruisdael visited Bentheim in 1650 and later transformed the castle into several paintings. He enlarged the hill so that the fortress dominated a more dramatic landscape than the actual site.
See this reproduction →
#31
Winter landscape with skaters
Around 1608, Avercamp made the frozen river a public square bringing together skaters, workers and accidents. The scene keeps the social memory of the Little Ice Age. Avercamp distributes little anecdotes about all the ice, from the game elegant with a comic punchline, without losing atmospheric depth.
See this reproduction →
#32
River landscape with horsemen
Cuyp paints the Dutch shores in golden light inspired by Italian art that he knows without having traveled to Italy. The riders give the countryside a new elegance. Low light lengthens shadows and transforms one local landscape in southern vision sought by British collectors.
See this reproduction →
#33
Grand Canal seen from the east from Campo S. Vio
Canaletto painted the Grand Canal around 1727 with precision nourished by drawings on the motif. La veduta responds to the Grand Tour traveler market while subtly recomposing perspectives.
See this reproduction →
#34
The Rialto Bridge in Venice
Guardi takes over the Rialto Bridge at a time when Venice is becoming a major subject of European memory. Its freer touch than that of Canaletto makes the architecture vibrate in the air of the lagoon.
See this reproduction →
#35
Snowdon from Llyn Nantlle
Richard Wilson painted Snowdon in the 1760s after returning from Italy. He applied the grandeur of the classical landscape to Wales and helped make the mountain worthy of British painting.
See this reproduction →
#36
Dedham Valley
Constable painted the Dedham Valley as early as 1802, in territory linked to his childhood. He later nicknamed it "Constable Country", proof that the landscape could eventually adopt the name of its painter.
See this reproduction →
#37
Flatford Mill
"Flatford Mill" belongs to the grand views of the Stour in which Constable combines family memories, river activity and weather observation. The work of the tow horse and family buildings prevent the scene from becoming a timeless countryside.
See this reproduction →
#38
Landscape
Jan Brueghel the Elder constructs his landscapes through a profusion of figures, roads and natural details. The gaze moves from the tiny story to the horizon as in an inventoried world.
See this reproduction →
#39
The Forum, Rome
Panini makes the Roman Forum a theater of ruins, travelers and light. Its views respond to the taste of the Grand Tour while reorganizing Antiquity for a more spectacular reading.
See this reproduction →
#40
Rest during the flight to Egypt
Claude Lorrain paints this biblical rest as a stopover in an ideal landscape. Light and the succession of shots count more than the episode, which above all gives a human scale to nature.
See this reproduction →Ice floe, storm, mountain, sea and American immensity give the landscape new physical and mental power.
#41
The Sea of Ice
Friedrich completed "The Sea of Ice" in 1823-1824, without having seen the Arctic it represents. It draws on studies of the frozen Elbe near Dresden and accounts of polar expeditions; an almost sunken stern of a ship appears in the middle of the broken plates. The work, little understood during his lifetime, transformed human failure into ice architecture and became one of the great manifestos of the romantic sublime.
See this reproduction →
#42
The Abbey in an oak forest
In the Abbey among the oaks, monks carry a coffin towards a Gothic ruin taken by winter and dusk. Friedrich brings together dead trees, open stone and funeral silhouettes in a vision where nature seems continue architecture. The night approaches as a slow conclusion.
See this reproduction →
#43
Chalk cliffs on the island of Rügen
On the cliffs of Rügen, Friedrich places three figures leaning or standing in front of white chalks which frame the blue sea. The trees close the view like a curtain, while distant boats enlarge the depth. Dizziness mixes with walking.
See this reproduction →
#44
The Ninth Wave
After the storm, Aivazovsky's survivors cling to a broken mast while a huge ninth wave rises under a golden sun. The light promises an outcome without diminishing the power of the water. The drama plays out between exhaustion and hope.
See this reproduction →
#45
The Black Sea
Aivazovsky paints The Black Sea almost without narrative: a dark expanse, whitened waves and a line of light under the clouds. A tiny boat is enough to give the scale of water that seems to extend beyond the frame. Relative calm already contains the threat.
See this reproduction →
#46
Winter night in the mountains
Sohlberg worked for several years on "Winter Night in the Mountains", completed in 1914. Rondane became a landscape of silence where snowy shapes seemed lit from the inside. Stars, blue snow and silhouettes triangulars give Rondane an almost sacred monumentality.
See this reproduction →
#47
Stalheim
Dahl painted "Stalheim" in 1842 based on travel studies in Norway. The plunging road, valley and mountains place the painter's native country in the European romantic tradition.
See this reproduction →
#48
North Cape
Peder Balke visited the North Cape in 1832 and then returned to this motif for a long time. His very free painting makes the Arctic coast a memory of wind, foam and light. His wide knife passages and his reduced values anticipate, through their economy, certain freedoms of modern painting.
See this reproduction →
#49
Lake Geneva from Chexbres
Hodler took over Lake Geneva from Chexbres at the beginning of the 20th century. The parallel strips of water, shore and mountains reflect his search for an order he calls parallelism. The patterns repeat like echoes, transforming the observed topography into a stable visual rhythm.
See this reproduction →
#50
March
Levitan painted "Mars" in 1895. The melting snow, muddy road and open door make the Russian landscape a moment of transition rather than a tidy season.
See this reproduction →
#51
Valle de México desde el cerro de Santa Isabel
Velasco painted the Valley of Mexico from Santa Isabel in 1875. His geological and botanical precision also serves as a national image of the territory after independence. In the foreground, the precise vegetation and human figures give scale to the vast basin surrounded by mountains.
See this reproduction →
#52
Popocatepetl and Iztaccihuatl
In his views of the Popocatépetl and Iztaccihuatl volcanoes, Velasco combines scientific observation, local history and the construction of an emblematic landscape of Mexico. The two peaks become geographical and cultural landmarks, associated by tradition with a legend of petrified lovers.
See this reproduction →
#53
Niagara
Church presented "Niagara" in 1857 after numerous studies of the site. The large format and close-up viewpoint transform the fall into a physical experience for the audience.
See this reproduction →
#54
Kindred Spirits
Durand painted "Kindred Spirits" in 1849 in homage to Thomas Cole. The late painter and poet William Cullen Bryant stand in a landscape of several American sites.
See this reproduction →
#55
The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone
Thomas Moran contributes his images of Yellowstone to making the American West known to Congress and the public. Its canyons combine travel documentation and spectacular scale. His watercolors accompanied Hayden's expedition 1871 and contributed to political support preceding the creation of the national park.
See this reproduction →
#56
Lake george
Kensett paints Lake George with an increasing economy of detail. The water, islands and sky become a luminous meditation associated with American luminism. The low horizon and large calm surfaces invite you less to explore the site than to experience its light.
See this reproduction →
#57
The Port of Boston
Fitz Henry Lane observes Boston Harbor at a time when sailboats and steamboats still share the horizon. Its calm light transforms commercial activity into almost geometric order. The sharpness of the silhouettes and the reflections suspend the movement, without erasing the technical changes of the port.
See this reproduction →
#58
Salisbury Cathedral seen from Bishop's Gardens
Constable paints Salisbury Cathedral for his friend Bishop John Fisher. Gothic architecture appears from the garden, between family life, religious history and English weather. The rainbow and the changing sky inscribe however the monument in a meteorological present, not in a still postcard.
See this reproduction →
#59
Dido building Carthage or the Ascension of the Carthaginian Empire
Turner exhibited "Didon Building Carthage" in 1815 and considered it one of his major works. He even organized his legacy so that she could dialogue at the National Gallery with Claude Lorrain.
See this reproduction →
#60
The Calais Pier
Turner exhibited "La Jetée de Calais" in 1803 from a truly grueling crossing. The boat, the waves and the sky reflect the vulnerability of the journey more surely than a logbook.
See this reproduction →Monet, Van Gogh, Cézanne, Sisley, Pissarro, Seurat and Signac break down the atmosphere, the moment and the color.
#61
Wheat field with crows
Van Gogh painted "Field of Wheat with Crows" in July 1890 in Auvers. Contrary to persistent legend, there is no evidence that this is his last painting, but his sky and paths remain urgently charged.
See this reproduction →
#62
The Langlois Bridge
Van Gogh painted several versions of the Langlois Bridge in 1888. The drawbridge reminded him of Japanese prints and became an emblem of his desire to create a workshop in the South. The washerwoman, the cart and the clean lines of the mechanism combine daily Provençal life and almost graphic construction.
See this reproduction →
#63
Café terrace in the evening
The yellow terrace advances down the blue street like a lit scene in the middle of the night. Van Gogh contrasts the heat of the café with the cold cobblestones, without using pure black, and makes the lines converge towards a sky filled with stars. THE passers-by remain tiny, but the space vibrates around them. The waiter clearly inherited the most beautiful ceiling in Arles.
See this reproduction →
The Parliament of London, setting sun
Monet painted the Parliament from the Savoy Hotel during stays in London between 1899 and 1901, then completed the paintings in Giverny. The monument dissolves in fog and sun.
See this reproduction →
#65
The Poppies
Monet painted "Les Coquelicots" in 1873 in Argenteuil. Camille and Jean Monet appear twice on the slope, transforming the family walk into a visual rhythm. The red spots lead the eye down the slope, while both repeated groups give the impression of two successive moments.
See this reproduction →
#66
The Rotating Road in Montgeroult
Cézanne painted the rotating road of Montgeroult in 1898. The path, trees and houses fit together in colored masses rather than from a single perspective. The curve of the road leads the eye into a composition where houses and vegetation share the same density.
See this reproduction →
#67
The Gulf of Marseille seen from Estaque
From l'Estaque, Cézanne looks at the bay of Marseille as a set of volumes. He wrote to Pissarro that the sun transforms objects into silhouettes, a decisive experience for his construction of the landscape.
See this reproduction →
#68
The Maincy Bridge
Cézanne painted the Maincy bridge around 1879-1880, during his stay near Melun. Water, trees and masonry form a dense space where each touch participates in the structure.
See this reproduction →
#69
The flood in Port-Marly
Sisley painted the flood of Port-Marly in 1876. The wine merchant's house and the boat provide concrete benchmarks for a climatic event that has become a series. The series thus confronts familiar architecture with water that temporarily transforms the street into a waterway.
See this reproduction →
#70
Loing Canal
Installed near Moret, Sisley returned to the Loing Canal in the 1890s. Towpath, water and poplars tell of a landscape used as well as contemplated. The verticals of the trees and their reflections give the canal a calm structure, animated by the passage of barges.
See this reproduction →
#71
Les Toits rouge, village corner, winter effect
Pissarro painted the "Red Roofs" in 1877 near Pontoise. The houses slip between the trees and fields, giving the village a mosaic structure. The split touch connects the facades, orchards and frozen ground without erasing the concrete organization of the hamlet.
See this reproduction →
#72
Boulevard Montmartre at night
Pissarro looks at Boulevard Montmartre from a high window, under the rain and electric lights. The cabs, sidewalks and windows become a river of yellow, white and blue touches. The night does not empty Paris: it accelerates its reflections. Even umbrellas seem to participate in traffic.
See this reproduction →
#73
White jelly
Pissarro painted "White Jelly" in 1873 near Pontoise and presented it the following year at the first impressionist exhibition. The critic Louis Leroy mocks its thick furrows and its knife fingerboard, but this material is compact precisely reflects the weight of the frozen ground and the effort of the peasant. The painting therefore belongs to the history of the movement as much as to that of a winter morning.
See this reproduction →
#74
The Seine seen from Grande Jatte
Seurat painted the Seine and the Grande Jatte at the end of the 1880s, when modern leisure activities spread to the Parisian banks. The divided touch gives air and water a calculated structure.
See this reproduction →
#75
Le Bec du Hoc, Grandcamp
Seurat builds Le Bec du Hoc in Grandcamp with a multitude of small touches that make cliff, sea and sky vibrate. The central rock has an almost sculptural weight, opposed to the sparkle of water.
See this reproduction →
#76
The Port of Saint-Tropez
Signac built the port of Saint-Tropez with divided touches of pink, yellow, blue and green. The sails and houses become luminous mosaics, while the figures of the quay give scale to the basin. Color organizes the port as much as the moorings.
See this reproduction →
Grindstones, end of summer
Monet's millstones, exhibited in series in 1891, show the same motif in different times and seasons. The end of summer is therefore not a setting, but a given of experience.
See this reproduction →
Cliffs near Dieppe
Monet often paints Normandy cliffs from hard-to-reach points. In Dieppe, the coast becomes a meeting between rocky mass, changing weather and abrupt framing. The discontinuous touch prevents the stone from appearing immobile: light and wind constantly rebuild the wall.
See this reproduction →
#79
The Church of Auvers-sur-Oise
Van Gogh painted the church of Auvers in June 1890. The Gothic building deforms under a deep blue sky while two paths bypass architecture deprived of a real entrance. The agitated lines and colorful shadows transform the real building into an unstable, almost living presence.
See this reproduction →
#80
Olives
In Saint-Rémy, Van Gogh painted olive trees as beings animated by wind and light. He contrasts this direct observation with the artificial religious images of certain contemporaries. Gnarled trunks, silver foliage and undulating soil form a personal response to the biblical theme of the Garden of Olives.
See this reproduction →Sérusier, Bonnard, Matisse, Derain, Kandinsky, Klee, Klimt and their contemporaries gradually detached the landscape from imitation.
#81
The Talisman
Wallpaper "Le Talisman" in 1888 under the advice of Gauguin in Pont-Aven. The small landscape becomes for the Nabis proof that a canvas can first be an arrangement of colors.
See this reproduction →
#82
Landscape in Le Cannet
Bonnard paints Le Cannet from the houses and gardens where he lives with Marthe. The landscape is reconstructed from memory, with colors that replace descriptive perspective. The window or terrace often introduces a nearby foreground that tilts the gaze towards the abundance outside.
See this reproduction →
#83
Vernon's terrace
From his property in Vernonnet, Bonnard observed the Seine and the garden over several decades. The terrace becomes a threshold between domestic life and recomposed landscape. The plans overlap like memories, making table, foliage, river and horizon coexist in the same sensation.
See this reproduction →
#84
Window open, Collioure
Matisse painted "Open Window, Collioure" during the summer of 1905. Presented at the Salon d'Automne, the work made the port a clash of colors which contributed to the birth of Fauvism. The window frame no longer stops the view: it becomes one of the colored bands that construct the painting.
See this reproduction →
#85
charing Cross Bridge
Derain painted the Charing Cross Bridge in 1906 after Vollard's sending to London. He responds to Monet with a city transformed by tawny colors. The yellow river, red bridges and green sky replace the London atmosphere with a deliberately non-naturalistic intensity.
See this reproduction →
#86
The Cliff of Étretat
Courbet painted the cliffs of Étretat after his Norman stays of 1869-1870. The rock, the sea and the wave are treated with a material which gives the landscape physical weight. The rocky needle and the natural arch serve as landmarks while the wave inscribes a more immediate force in the canvas.
See this reproduction →
#87
The Source of the Loue
The source of the Loue, near Ornans, returns several times to Courbet. The river emerges from a dark cave, a local motif that the painter transforms into the almost geological origin of his own territory.
See this reproduction →
#88
Memory of Mortefontaine
Corot painted "Souvenir de Mortefontaine" in 1864. The word "souvenir" indicates a landscape reconstructed in a workshop, where ancient observation becomes a silvery harmony. The figures at the water's edge balance the large tree and give this recomposed memory a human sweetness.
See this reproduction →
#89
The Narni Bridge
Corot discovered Narni during his first Italian stay in 1826. The Roman bridge and valley allowed him to study clear light before the more poetic landscapes of his maturity. The study painted on the pattern preserves the bare structure land and announces the importance of the outdoors for subsequent generations.
See this reproduction →
#90
Spring - Charles-François Daubigny
Daubigny paints spring from the rivers and countryside he travels, sometimes aboard his workshop boat. The season is captured by the rise of light and vegetation.
See this reproduction →
#91
A marsh in the moors
Théodore Rousseau devoted extensive studies to moors, marshes and forests before settling in Barbizon. The humid terrain becomes a precise ecosystem, far from the academic setting. Stagnant waters, trees and heavy skies give this environment deemed ungrateful, its own power, studied without idealization.
See this reproduction →
#92
Spring - Jean-François Millet
Millet worked for several years on his "Spring", integrated into a cycle of the seasons. The rainbow and the light after the storm give an almost biblical scale to an ordinary orchard. Millet associates natural renewal with peasant work, even when no great action dominates the scene.
See this reproduction →
#93
Murnau - Castle and church
Kandinsky painted Murnau in 1909 with Gabriele Münter and their friends. Castle, church and mountain become simplified into colored masses on the path to abstraction. The intense flat areas distance the village from topographical description and make color the real subject.
See this reproduction →
#94
The Blue Rider
Painted in 1903, "The Blue Rider" precedes the group of the same name by several years. The small figure crosses a landscape where color is already beginning to take on its autonomy.
See this reproduction →
#95
Southern Gardens
In "Southern Gardens", Klee transforms the garden into signs, compartments and rhythms. The landscape observed during his Mediterranean travels becomes a mental architecture. Variations of green, ocher and red retain the idea growing while refusing the illusion of a continuous garden.
See this reproduction →
#96
Garden on the shores of Lake Thun
Garden on the shores of Lake Thun shows August Macke simplifying trees, terrace and light into flat colored areas. The yellows, greens and blues build a joyful space where depth remains readable without meticulous naturalism.
See this reproduction →
#97
Malcesine on Lake Garda
Klimt painted Malcesine in 1913 from a boat on Lake Garda. The work was destroyed in the fire at Immendorf Castle in 1945 and only survives through photographs.
See this reproduction →
#98
Midsummer Eve Bonfire
Astrup paints Midsummer fires in his native Jølster landscape. The nighttime festival brings together seasonal ritual, rural community and northern light. The circular fire animates the silhouettes and transforms the dark valley into a collective scene, between observation and childhood memory.
See this reproduction →
#99
Matamoe
Gauguin painted "Matamoe" in Tahiti in 1892. The felling of a tree becomes a work scene in a landscape whose Maori title, chosen by the artist, remains difficult to translate exactly.
See this reproduction →
#100
The Snake Charmer
Rousseau painted "The Snake Charm" in 1907 for Robert Delaunay's mother. Having never traveled to the tropics, he composes his jungle from greenhouses, books and his Parisian imagination.
See this reproduction →What the works reveal
One hundred landscapes, three inventions still active
The painted landscape is never a neutral window. It organizes the spectator's place, transforms light into structure and gives territories a cultural, political or intimate memory.
The horizon sets the gaze
Its height, sharpness or disappearance decide whether the viewer dominates, crosses or confronts space.
Light makes time
Season, time and weather give incompatible meanings to the same place, from silence to drama.
The territory becomes history
Road, port, field, ruin and city record human work, travel, myths and transformations of the world.
A Western history of landscape
Five landmarks to cross horizons
Mountains, rivers and miniature cities give the territory a new dimension in European painting.
Hunters in the Snow and The Reapers give the territory the density of work, climate and collective life.
The figure from behind transforms the mountain into an inner experience and becomes one of the signatures of romanticism.
The port of Le Havre in the rising sun gives a title to a movement which makes changing light a central subject.
Starry Night condenses observation, memory and pictorial rhythm into an image that has become universal.
The landscape in depth
How landscape became a major subject of painting
Between the Renaissance and the 17th century, the landscape gradually gained its autonomy in European painting. Patinier, Brueghel, Claude Lorrain and Poussin transform the decor into the main structure. Ruins, rivers, ports and seasons become capable of carrying a narrative without depending entirely on the figures.
In Flemish and Dutch schools, Ruisdael, Hobbema, Avercamp and Cuyp give the territory a daily presence. Mills, canals, roads and countryside establish a light, a climate and an organization of space which now make the place the real subject.
At the turn of the 19th century, Constable, Turner and Friedrich gave the sky, the climate and the immensity a new power. The romantic sublime confronts the viewer with the sea, the mountains, the ice and the storm. Aux United States, Cole, Church, Bierstadt, Durand and Moran combine territory, expansion, memory and spectacle.
Impressionism further shifts the rules. Monet, Sisley and Pissarro observe variations in light; Cézanne reconstructs space through color; Van Gogh makes the sky, trees and fields visible rhythms. The landscape ceases to be a stable copy of the place to become an experience of time and sensation.
In the 20th century, Sérusier, Bonnard, Matisse, Derain, Kandinsky, Klee, Klimt and other painters freed color and simplified forms. The place often remains identifiable, but it also becomes memory, sign or mental space. These traditions respond to each other without following a single progression: each invents another way of connecting place, memory and color.
Four reading keys
How to look at a painted landscape
Horizon, planes, light and human presence make it possible to compare eras and schools without reducing them to the same formula.
Find your place
A low line gives the sky, a high line gives the terrain; its absence forces the gaze to construct the distance differently.
Follow the path
Rocks, trees, architecture and waterways lead the eye from the foreground to the distance.
Identify the moment
Shadows, reflections, mist and colored temperature regulate the time, the season and the emotion.
Measure the territory
A silhouette, a boat, a road or a house is often enough to give the landscape its scale and its history.
Paints, products and references
Continue in the Famous Landscapes collection
In Alpha Reproduction
01The 100 most famous paintings in the worldAlpha Reproduction course02100 paintings in 100 datesAlpha Reproduction course03The 100 essential paintings of the 20th centuryAlpha Reproduction courseMuseums and references
01National Gallery - LandscapeMuseum & reference02The Metropolitan Museum of Art - LandscapesMuseum & reference03Alpha Reproduction Collection - Famous landscapesMuseum & referenceFrequently asked questions
The landscape without staying by the side of the road
References to understand the history of the painted landscape, its techniques, its major artistic centers and the works presented.
How were the hundred landscapes classified?
The first twenty bring together the most recognized icons. The following four chapters follow the historical invention of the genre, the sublime, the outdoors and the modernities of color. Rank organizes a critical journey; it does not measure an absolute value.
What is the scope of the classification?
The route brings together only paintings from European and American traditions, from the Renaissance to the modernities of the 20th century.
Are multiple works by the same artist permitted?
Yes, when they represent different moments or solutions. However, no artist dominates the body of work: one hundred works represent 59 painters.
Do the images exactly match the products?
Yes. The hundred images and the hundred links are unique.
Why do some scenes contain figures or buildings?
A landscape can be natural, urban, maritime or inhabited. The presence of a traveler, a port or an architecture does not prevent the territory, light and depth from constituting the main subject.
0 comments