http://dmf.culture.fr/files/paysage.html (Einblicke ins Internet, 10/1995)
Landscape
Landscape
In the hierarchy of genres, landscape was the lowest category. Though few
painters adopted it professionally, many, even the greatest, like
Largillière
, Oudry
, Boucher, Fragonard or David, tried
their hand at it in private, in sketches or drawings. Works depicting an exact
location are rare, since academic tradition required landscapes to be ideal,
and thus timeless. Nevertheless, apart from these
composed landscapes,
others bore witness to a
rigorous observation
of nature.
Landscape according to the strictest definition of the term was the speciality
of
Allegrain
, Houel
, Lacroix de Marseille
, Moreau the Elder
, Vernet and
Valenciennes
and should be associated with
the architectural views executed by
De Machy,
Lallemand and
Hubert Robert.