Once widespread across Europe and many other lands, they used to grind all the grain into flour, provide power to sawmills, make paper and more.
van Ruisdael
In 1579, 7 of the more northerly provinces in the Low Countries formed the Dutch Republic. That soon prospered from its international trade, and saw the creation of millions of paintings that changed European art.
Paintings by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Aelbert Cuyp, van Ruisdael, Caspar Wolf, Jongkind, Whistler and others of ice on rivers, canals, lakes and the sea. Brrrr.
Turning harvested and threshed grain into food required it to be crushed into flour in mills, powered either by wind or water.
Some of the greatest paintings forming the zeitgeist of the genre, from Poussin, Rubens, Valenciennes, Turner, Monet, Renoir, Pissarro, and others.
Coastal landscapes from Claude in 1639, through visits to the island of Capri, to Étretat and Monet’s series, and Divisionists in the Midi.
How repoussoir originated in figurative painting, and came to become a popular compositional technique for landscapes from Giorgione to Turner.
Once the mark of rural poverty, thatched roofs were common throughout the countryside of Europe. Here are some up to the 1890s.
From Giorgione, Dürer and Altdorfer to Turner, Pissarro, Monet and Renoir: landmarks in the composition of landscape paintings.
Frosts herald the winter, a time when few landscape painters work out of doors, but retreat to the studio. These paintings of frost come from the hardiest of artist.
The Eclectic Light Company 