Choosing prints or posters to brighten up our walls, very often involves the paintings of a landscape artist. The originals of the most revered painters are beyond the means of most people, but reproductions are more affordable. This means a great landscape artist such as Camille Pissaro, John Constable, or Claude Monet is accessible to us.

Landscapes are often the chosen subject for amateur artists. They may not have much studio space, and so prefer to get up close and personal with the natural world. The landscape artist before the time of the Impressionists mainly painted inside, working from memory or drawings. The Impressionists such as Monet and Renoir took their canvases out in the countryside and were considered eccentric for doing so.

There is a tradition of landscape painting in many cultures. The landscape artist is particularly admired in Britain, the USA, France, Holland, and Japan. Two Japanese artists were a great influence on the landscape artists of Europe in the 19th century. They were Hiroshige (1797-1858), and Hokusai (1760-1849), who painted brightly colored images of the wild ocean, forests and mountain ranges. From the later twentieth century onwards, other forms of art would dominate the attention of artists and critics. Surrealism, Cubism, and Abstract Expressionism drove the tradition of the landscape artist into the margins. These days, video art and installations grab the headlines and landscape painting is considered unfashionable. It is rarely done, except as gritty, urban landscapes sometimes.

However, the general public is still fond of landscapes. Most people feel a direct connection to the subject, especially if the painting evokes a nostalgic past. A Still Life or portrait doesn't provoke the same emotional response. Some painters have developed an obsession with a particular area. The landscape artist Paul Cézanne returned to the same mountain and painted it about eighty times. This dedication was for Montagne Sainte Victoire, near his home in Aix-en-Provence, France. Cézanne wanted to capture the mountain in different weather conditions.

The Dutch painters Vermeer (1632-1675), and Rembrandt (1606-1669) were the first of the European landscape artists to paint the sea. Sky and water have been recurring themes for some artists. The English landscape artist JMW Turner is known for his stormy skies and seascapes. His later paintings blurred the sea and the horizon together, pointing the way to abstract paintings of the future. Monet perfected his technique of depicting water by sitting in a rowing boat on the river, so he could get as near to his subject as possible. The American artists Winslow Homer and Andrew Wyeth are both admired as landscape artists, and they captured light on the water particularly well.