\paperw19995 \margr0\margl0 \plain \fs20 \pard\tx8790\ATXts240\ATXbrdr0 \f1 From the seventeenth century onward a love of nature drove artists to depict landscapes, wheth
er in the midst of a forest or along the banks of a river. Landscape paintings were often produced in series and illustrated months and seasons, as well as the activities of humankind.\par
Much appreciated by the wealthy bourgeoisie, which liked to see
the familiar places of the surrounding countryside commemorated in attractive works, landscape paintings carefully reproduced the irregular shapes of trees, muddy lanes and cloudy skies, without ever reducing the grandeur of the composition.\par
\pard\ATXts240\ATXbrdr0 With the emergence of Romantic sensibility, the landscape and nature became sources of emotion, transfiguring reality under the impetus of powerful feelings. Horizons grew more distant, the sky dominated the picture and the works
of humanity disappeared, overwhelmed by nature. The light and color potential offered by the French countryside and the shores of Provence was well understood by the Impressionist painters, who reached the peak of their creativity in the landscape genre.
