“elite sociability” prevalent in Parisian and other urban contexts, embracing their interest in particular
social activities, states of mind and feeling (Bailey, 2003, 22). The genre as a whole came into greater
prominence in France in the years following the Revolution. In 1791 the Salon opened its doors to artists
of all kinds, regardless of whether they were academicians. Then in 1799 the Minister of the Interior
echoed the public reaction against the prevalence of history and insisted that genre paintings should
embody the capacity of history paintings to convey patriotic and political (in this case republican) virtues
(B. Gaehtgens, 2003, 56).
Landscape
The landscape genre flourished mainly in the nineteenth century. Unlike history painting, there was in
Paris no Rome prize for landscape until 1816. This was in spite of the fact that it often featured in Salon
exhibitions and gained in popularity as the eighteenth century progressed. It was sometimes seen by the
authorities, along with portraiture and genre painting, as another unwelcome rival to history painting.
Pierre, thenDirector of the Académie royale, complained in the early 1780s that “There are two
hundred French painters in Rome and all of them are landscape painters” (cited in Conisbee, 1981, 184).
This was partly because word had spread of new opportunities there so that artists were tempted to work
there regardless of the lack of support from the Académie. Natoire had in the 1750s encouraged other
artists to join him in Rome and to paint more landscapes, as the history genre was in decline (Levey,
1993, 181). However, it was also in the 1750s that Vernet returned from Italy as Louis XV had awarded
him an important commission to paint a series of works representing France’s seaports. Vernet exhibited
those he had completed at the Salons, between 1755 and 1765: they demonstrated a merging of
topographical detail with the idealizing visual formulae established in the previous century by Claude
Lorrain (1604/1605–1682). Changes to artistic culture in France during the Revolution redressed any
earlier prejudices concerning the “lower” genres, and in the 1791 and 1793 Salons far more landscape
paintings were exhibited in public.
Many subgenres coexisted in eighteenthcentury landscape painting, each differing in purpose,
production, status and significance. These included marine paintings, country house portraits, “historical”
or “poetic” landscapes, cityscapes, pastoral idylls, capriccios (scenes freely combining the real and the
imaginary of which Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720–1778) is now the most renowned practitioner,
grotesques (architectural fantasies based specifically on underground classical ruins and their decorative
motifs) and vedute (topographically accurate landscape views). It was common for artists to combine
these genres and capriccios were inherently composite: the capriccio Ancient Beech Tree (1794) by Paul
Sandby (1731–1809) was based on topographical elements from Windsor (an ancient beech) and the Wye
valley (the general view).
The term “landscape” dates from the late sixteenth century, the related terms of “Landschaft” – German –
and “paese” – Italian – from the early sixteenth century, and “scenery” from the late eighteenth (Margaret
Drabble, cited in Cumming, 1985, 182). In the early part of the century it was very difficult for
eighteenthcentury artists to make a living from landscapes alone. As with the other “low” genres,
private patronage was crucial: with the exception of decorative schemes, there were relatively few royal
or state commissions. Many artists who frequently incorporated landscape into their work (such as
Boucher and Gainsborough) were not primarily landscape artists, and the conflation of landscape with
other genres was often a case of economic necessity. Initially limited to lesser roles such as providing
backgrounds for hunt or country house scenes, the landscape genre as a whole grew in importance in
France and Britain in particular. The traditional view of landscape as a form of representation
emphasized its (“low”) tendency to provide a close imitation of observed reality and to exemplify