LOS ANGELES, CA.- On view at the J. Paul Getty Museum at the
Getty Center, July 28 - November 1, 2009, Capturing Natures
Beauty: Three Centuries of French Landscape draws from the
Gettys drawings collection including some works from the Getty
Research Institute, to highlight key moments in the French
landscape tradition, from its emergence in the 1600s to its
preeminence in the 1800s. French artists have depicted landscape
since the late Middle Ages. In early worksmanuscript
illuminations, wall paintings, tapestrieslandscape played a
role, but only to serve as a background for human activities. It
did not become an independent and respected artistic subject
until the 1620s, when French artists began to turn it into a
specialty. It wasnt until the middle of the eighteenth century
that the practice became actively encouraged in academic
training. In the so-called academic hierarchy of the genres,
which ranked subjects according to their intellectual or moral
content, pure landscape was placed lowbeneath history