 |
| Hendrik Frans van Lint Landscape with an Italian Hill Town ca. 1700-1725 oil on canvas National Gallery, London |
 |
| Francesco Zuccarelli Pastoral Landscape ca. 1760 oil on canvas Manchester Art Gallery |
 |
| George Augustus Wallis Landscape near Rome 1794 oil on canvas Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool |
 |
| George Augustus Wallis Villa Adriana ca. 1780-90 oil on paper Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh |
from The Rambler
Every government, say the politicians, is perpetually degenerating towards corruption, from which it must be rescued at certain periods by the resuscitation of its first principles, and the re-establishment of its original constitution. Every animal body, according to the methodic physicians, is, by the predominance of some exuberant quality, continually declining towards disease and death, which must be obviated by a seasonable reduction of the peccant humor to the just equipoise which health requires.
In the same manner the studies of mankind, all at least which not being subject to rigorous demonstration admit the influence of fancy and caprice, are perpetually tending to error and confusion. Of the great principles of truth which the first speculatists discovered, the simplicity is embarrassed by ambitious additions, or the evidence obscured by inaccurate argumentation; and as they descend from one succession of writers to another, the light transmitted from room to room, they lose their strength and splendor, and fade at last in total evanescence.
– Samuel Johnson (1751)
 |
| Claude-Joseph Vernet Figures in a Landscape ca. 1750 oil on canvas Hatton Gallery, Newcastle-upon-Tyne |
 |
| Philippe-Jacques de Loutherbourg The Rainbow 1784 oil on canvas Yale Center for British Art |
 |
| Philippe-Jacques de Loutherbourg Landscape with Figures 1763 oil on canvas Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool |
 |
| Joseph Wright of Derby Caernarvon Castle by Moonlight ca. 1780-85 oil on canvas Manchester Art Gallery |
 |
| Francesco Guardi Landscape Capriccio ca. 1780 oil on canvas Courtauld Gallery, London |
 |
| Richard Wilson Snowdon from Llyn Nantlle ca. 1765-66 oil on canvas Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool |
 |
| Richard Wilson Landscape with Phaëton's Petition to Apollo ca. 1763-67 oil on canvas Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool |
 |
| Richard Wilson Landscape with Banditti round a Tent 1752 oil on canvas National Museum Cardiff, Wales |
 |
| Richard Wilson Landscape with Banditti - The Murder 1752 oil on canvas National Museum Cardiff, Wales |
 |
| George Morland Gypsy Encampment ca. 1788-98 oil on canvas York City Art Gallery |
 |
| George Morland Gypsy Encampment ca. 1790-95 oil on canvas Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool |