A landscape without human or animal figures often looks eery or unnatural. This new series looks at how figures are used in landscape paintings, with copious examples.
Constable
An independent pioneer of ‘social realism’, his densely-populated landscapes showed real people struggling to live in the north French countryside.
He demonstrated that you can paint from your mind’s eye, however unusual your mind may be. A major influence of William Blake.
Were Pre-Raphaelite landscape paintings just a brief and unimportant, passing phase, or did they have significant influence?
The pursuit of truth was not easy, and posed its own problems, which altered the look of paintings.
His second vast canvas almost brings him to financial and artistic failure, but he recovers.
Full membership of the Royal Academy, a gigantic landscape of the sublime, and several important commissions: the peak of his career.
One of the major figures in British painting in the first half of the 1800s, but usually ignored today. His oil sketches are exceptional.
Turner’s innovation was driven by his desire to explore colour contrasts and texture. But it led him to lapses in technique which have damaged his paintings.
It wasn’t until later in his career that he discovered his formula for success: putting farm animals into his landscapes.
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