landschapsstijl

Landschapsstijl, literally "landscape style," is a Dutch term used to describe a landscape-based aesthetic that appears in two related strands of cultural history: artistic representation and designed outdoor space. In art history, the Dutch landscape tradition emerged in the 17th century as a distinct genre (landschap), focusing on nature, weather, light, and the relation between land and sky. The label landschapsstijl is less common for painting alone and is more often used when discussing landscape-inspired approaches within later design traditions.

In garden and park design, landschapsstijl denotes a coherent movement from roughly the late 18th century to the mid-19th century that embraced the English landscape garden principle: naturalistic, asymmetrical layouts, rolling lawns, irregular watercourses, clumps of trees, groves, distant views, and rustic structures. Buildings and lay-out were arranged to create picturesque scenes and to evoke an idealized countryside within parks, country estates, and urban spaces. The style stood in contrast to formal, geometric French or Dutch baroque garden designs and contributed to the emergence of public parks and city planning in the Netherlands and Flemish territories.

The term is used by historians and landscape architects to distinguish this approach from both earlier formal styles and later modernist trends. It remains a useful label for understanding 18th– and 19th-century shifts toward perceived naturalness in Dutch cultural landscapes.