ABSTRACT
Burning coal tips are one way in which coal deforms the landscape. In the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century landscape, painting was a particularly important genre in both Europe and America. In Germany the most significant figure was the Romantic painter Casper David Friedrich. In the United States the nineteenth century produced many celebrated landscape painters. The large panoramic pictures are extraordinarily detailed and allow the viewer to read the often-bleak landscapes without being directed to a particular point of view. Hanson’s work is of first importance in exploring images of degraded landscapes, as is that of Richard Misrach, the distinguished photographer who has explored the American landscape for more than forty years. Pastoral images showed a peaceful landscape dominated by human beings who had tamed nature to produce elegant gardens, verdant agricultural fields and tranquil walks and lanes.
