The art of the English landscape came into its own in the 18th century with Gainsborough, Alexander Cozens and Stubbs, later achieving its full flowering with Turner, Constable and Whistler before turning to the imaginary world of Paul Nash and Graham Sutherland.

Stimulated at first by the influence of Dutch and Flemish artists like Van Dyck and of the Italians such as Canaletto, the art of the English landscape came into its own in the 18th century with Gainsborough, Alexander Cozens and Stubbs, later achieving its full flowering with Turner, Constable and Whistler before turning to the imaginary world of Paul Nash and Graham Sutherland.From idealised visions to hunting scenes, from romantic watercolours to marine painting, from the Preraphaelites to the Postimpressionists, this comprehensive work turns the spotlight on more than a hundred and twenty masterpieces.

Introduction

Landscape and poetry during the Renaissance

Stimulation from Abroad

The topographical tradition and the search for beauty

Alexander Cozens and the triumph of the imagination

Hunting scenes and rural life

Wilson and Gainsborough disregarded in their day

Joseph Wright of Derby, commentator on the industrial revolution

The liberation of sensibility thanks to watercolour

Turner's amazing career

Long-range travellers

Crome and Constable, painters of the soil

The romantic vision

The Pre-raphaelites and victorian painting

Whistler and the impressionists

The beginning of the twentieth century

A glance backwards

Who were these painters?

Main places mentioned in the text

Index of names