The Idea of the English Landscape Painter: Genius as Alibi in the Early Nineteenth Century (The Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art)

English landscape painting changed dramatically during the time of Turner and Girtin - the new style of painting was seen as more natural and expressive of the imagination and character of the artist himself. The new artistic "geniuses" were hailed by critics as shining stars of a truly English school of landscape painting. In this book, Dian Kriz critically examines the emergence of the Romantic concept of the landscape genius, arguing that it was a category produced by critics, painters, and the public in opposition to other ways of thinking about the artist in the period around 1800. She places the artistic genius of the (male) landscape painter in relation to the (female) amateur, the connoisseur, the decadent Frenchman, and the entrepreneur.