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.