Richard Wilson Stormy Landscape 1760s Victoria & Albert Museum |
One way to look at this group of 18th-century landscape paintings from Europe is to divide them into two camps. One camp heralds the future, the era of the Romantic and of Revolution. Richard Wilson (above), represents these revolutionaries, as do Loutherbourg, Pillement, and Britton.
Michele Pagano (immediately below) leads the classical opposition, representatives of the fantasy of stability (as entertained by the ancien regime). Other traditionalists and venerators of the past are Vanvitelli, Giaquinto and Gore.
Michele Pagano Landscape early 18th century Prado |
Claude Joseph Vernet Italian Landscape c1745-50 Prado |
Gaspare Vanvitelli Palaces at Posillipo ca. 1725 Prado |
Gaspare Vanvitell Grotto at Posillipo ca. 1725 Prado |
Jean Pillement Shipwreck Survivors 1790s Prado |
Alexandre Pau de Saint-Martin Watermill ca. 1789 Victoria & Albert Museum |
Ange-Denis Maquin Porte de Cornillon, Meaux 1796 Ashmolean Museum, Oxford |
Philippe Jacques de Loutherbourg Falls of the Rhine 1788 Victoria & Albert Museum |
Philippe Jacques de Loutherbourg The Deluge ca. 1770 Victoria & Albert Museum |
Corrado Giaquinto Landscape with Hunters 1750s Prado |
Corrado Giaquinto Landscape with Waterfall 1750s Prado |
Charles Gore Tomb of Theron, Agrigento 1777 British Museum |
John Britton Standing Stones late 18th century British Museum |