paysage

Paysage is a French noun meaning landscape. It refers to natural scenery as a whole, including landforms, water, vegetation, sky, and any human modifications such as settlements or agricultural work. In art, paysage denotes the landscape painting genre, in which scenery is the primary subject rather than a historical or religious scene. The term is also used in geography, urban planning, and photography to describe views of the external environment.

Etymology and scope: Paysage derives from pays meaning country, with the suffix -age, and has long distinguished representations of nature from other subjects. In practice, the term covers natural landscapes and built or altered landscapes such as cities and rural areas. It can encompass both idealized and documentary portrayals of the environment.

Historical development: Landscape imagery appears in visual art from the Renaissance as a complement to central subjects. It matured as an autonomous genre in 17th-century Dutch painting, emphasizing light, weather, topography, and atmosphere. In France, Claude Lorrain and Nicolas Poussin developed idealized, classically composed landscapes. The 19th century saw the Barbizon School and the rise of plein air painting, which emphasized direct observation of nature and influenced Impressionism. Since then, landscape art and discourse have continued to address environmental, social, and spatial concerns.