1600s Canvas Landscape Scenery Oil Paintings

Edward Williams, born in London in 1781, was an English landscape painter during the Victorian era. He had six sons, who became well-known landscape painters as well. He came from a family of artists — his mother, Mary Ward, was the sister of the animal painter James Ward and the engraver William Ward, but also the sister-in-law of the figure-painter George Morland, and of the animal painter Henry Chalon; his father was an engraver who worked with John Raphael Smith. Edward Williams was sent around 1792 or 1793 to live with his maternal uncle James Ward, R.A. (1769–1859), but it seems unlikely that he received any painting instruction from him. Instead, he was informally apprenticed to a carver and gilder named Thomas Hillier, who had a shop on Carnaby Street and he became quite successful to enjoy a comfortable living. Williams between 1814–55 exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts (36 works), British Institution (21 works), Suffolk Street Gallery of the Society of British Artists (38 works), and elsewhere. He started by painting miniatures and copying Baroque landscapes from the 1600s in the style of the Dutch painters Ruisdael (1628–82) and Hobbema (1638–1709), the former known for woodland scenes with detailed renderings of trees, particularly the leaves, and water scenes with small boats moored beneath windmills; the latter known for his densely foliated trees with stippled leaves. As Williams developed his style, in which the figures, if present at all, were generally subordinate to the scenery, he moved on to contemporary landscapes of the English countryside that, not surprisingly, a hint of some of the work of his uncle George Morland.

It could be argued that cave walls were the canvases for the world’s first landscape paintings, which depict and elevate natural scenery through art, but there is a richer history to consider.

The Netherlands was home to landscapes as a major theme in painting as early as the 1500s, and ink-on-silk paintings in China featured mountains and large bodies of water as far back as the third century. Greeks created vast wall paintings that depicted landscapes and grandiose garden scenes, while in the late 15th century and early 16th century, landscapes were increasingly the subject of watercolor works by the likes of Leonardo da Vinci and Fra Bartolomeo.

The popularity of religious paintings eventually declined altogether, and by the early 19th century, painters of classical landscapes took to painting out-of-doors (plein-air painting). Paintings of natural scenery were increasingly realistic but romanticized too. Into the 20th century, landscapes remained a major theme for many artists, and while the term “landscape painting” may call to mind images of lush, grassy fields and open seascapes, the genre is characterized by more variety, colors and diverse styles than you may think. Painters working in the photorealist style of landscape painting, for example, seek to create works so lifelike that you may confuse their paint for camera pixels. But if you’re shopping for art to outfit an important room, the work needs to be something with a bit of gravitas (and the right frame is important, too).

Adding a landscape painting to your home can introduce peace and serenity within the confines of your own space. (Some may think of it as an aspirational window of sorts rather than a canvas.) Abstract landscape paintings by the likes of Korean painter Seungyoon Choi or Georgia-based artist Katherine Sandoz, on the other hand, bring pops of color and movement into a room. These landscapes refuse to serve as a background. Elsewhere, Adam Straus’s technology-inspired paintings highlight how our extreme involvement with our devices has removed us from the glory of the world around us. Influenced by modern life and steeped in social commentary, Straus’s landscape paintings make us see our surroundings anew.

Whether you’re seeking works by the world’s most notable names or those authored by underground legends, find a vast collection of landscape paintings on 1stDibs.