Andrew Vicari

Sir Alfred East was born in Kettering in Northamptonshire and studied at the Glasgow School of Art. His romantic landscapes show the influence of the Barbizon school. In April 1888, he had shared an exhibition at the galleries of the Fine Art Society with T. C. Gotch and W. Ayerst Ingram and was commissioned the following year by Marcus Huish, Managing Director of the Society, to spend six months in Japan to paint the landscape and the people of the country. The exhibition of 104 paintings from this tour was held at the Fine Art Society in 1890, it was a spectacular success. East visited Spain in 1892. In 1906, he was elected President of the Royal Society of British Artists, a position he held until his death. In that year, he published his 107-page illustrated The Art of Landscape Painting in Oil Colour; in its preface, he made the observation: “The greatest errors in landscape painting are to be found – contradictory as it may appear – not so much in the matter of technique as in the painter's attitude toward Nature”. In this book, he described his techniques using colors, half-tones and pencil sketches. He was awarded a Knighthood in 1910 by King Edward VII. His portrait was painted by Philip de László. The Alfred East Art Gallery in Kettering, designed by John Alfred Gotch opened on 31 July 1913 and is Northamptonshire's oldest purpose-built art gallery. East was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy of Arts in 1899, having been a regular exhibitor since 1883 and elected to full membership in 1913. On 28 September 1913, East died at his London residence in Belsize Park. His body was taken back to Kettering and lay in state in the Alfred East Art Gallery, where it was surrounded by the pictures he had presented to the town, and attracted crowds of several thousand.

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.