How many landscapes largely set the course for the graphic treatment of landscape until the end of the 19th century ?
In Europe , as John Ruskin said , and Sir Kenneth Clark confirmed , landscape painting was the " chief artistic creation of the nineteenth century " , and " the dominant art " , with the result that in the following period people were " apt to assume that the appreciation of natural beauty and the painting of landscape is a normal and enduring part of our spiritual activity " In Clark 's analysis , underlying European ways to convert the complexity of landscape to an idea were four fundamental approaches : the acceptance of descriptive symbols , a curiosity about the facts of nature , the creation of fantasy to allay deep - rooted fears of nature , and the belief in a Golden Age of harmony and order , which might be retrieved .