ABSTRACT
Painting is in fact so central to the formulation and development of the idea of landscape, when investigation is done at the origin and history of the term, it finds numerous instances when landscape refers simultaneously to a view or delimited area of ground, and its painted representation. The word landscape was imported to England around the turn of the sixteenth century to describe small Dutch panel paintings of rural scenery. Landscape is a bounded area. It is a view, as well as its painted representation. The Grand Tour introduced British aristocrats to Italian landscape, providing a vehicle for the first-hand experience of scenes and sights sanctified by the study of classical literature. Painshill, a tourist destination, is an example of one way in which the relationship between landscape and painting could be formulated. For William Gilpin, a landscape was picturesque if it was divided into foreground, middle ground, and background and animated by strong contrasts of light and shade.
