Landscape painting
1. Uncountable. e.g. Landscape painting became very popular in the 17th c.
Gods and goddesses rarely appear in a Dutch landscape painting.
2. Countable. e.g. There was a beautiful landscape by Levitan. The Hermitage has a fine collection of Dutch landscapes.
Constable is perhaps the greatest English landscape painter.
Note that in the context of art, landscape generally denotes a picture, and not the view depicted there. In the latter sense scenery is the usual word.
e.g. From about 1807 Turner began to exhibit more landscapes of English scenery.
The scenery of the Alps inspired him to paint several beautiful pictures.
Countryside is sometimes used in a similar way.
e.g. Turner painted many pictures of the countryside near Petworth, where he often stayed at the house of his patron, Lord Egremont.
Nature is used with reference to landscape painters in such sentences as:
Constable loved nature. / Constable had a great love of/for nature.
Shishkin had a wonderful feeling for nature.
Note: Russian countryside
seascape.
e.g. The seascape/Seascape painting is naturally popular with such sea-faring nations as the English and the Dutch.
This is one of Turner's early seascapes.
Marine painter is used to denote a painter of seascapes. e.g. Turner is considered by many people to be the greatest marine painter.
Marinist does not exist.
portrait painting
portrait painting is only uncountable.
a portrait. There are several fine portraits by Manet in the exhibition.
Self-portrait.
sitter, subject, model
Sitter is the most usual word for a person who is having his portrait painted, or sitting for his portrait.
e.g. Repin has captured the inner life of his sitter.
Subject is sometimes used instead of sitter, particularly in cases where the person did not sit for his portrait, but was simply observed by the artist.
Model is used mainly of nudes.
full-length portrait
half/knee/shoulder-length portrait
equestrian portrait one where the subject is on a horse.
still-life ( both countable and uncountable )
e.g.The still-life was very popular with the Cubists.
There was a beautiful still-life of a vase and some fruit against/on a blue background.
There were three still-lifes by Picasso.
still-life painter
genre painting
genre painter a painter of genre scenes
mural is used of any painting on a wall ( )
Fresco denotes a picture or design painted on a wall or ceiling while the plaster is still wet, or at least damp.
Oil, water-colour
Turner used water-colour for immediate studies from nature, and oil for those pictures which he intended to exhibit.
Scene
This word is used in various expressions specifying the subject of a picture, e.g.
street scene, city scene, country scene, hunting scene, historical scene, battle scene
e.g. He painted scenes from everyday/village/court life.
piece = work
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e.g. The exhibition contains several fine pieces by Corot.
conversation piece . A picture depicting a group of people in their customary indoor or outdoor surroundings.
flower piece a type of still-life representing a carefully arranged vase of flowers realistically painted in minute detail.
masterpiece
Scupture
Sculpture may be used uncountably in a general sense.
e.g. I prefer sculpture to painting. There's an exhibition of modern sculpture at the Hermitage.
Or countably, to mean a particular work, a piece of sculpture.
e.g. There's a new sculpture in the entrance hall of the university. The museum has bought several sculptures by local artists.
to carve or to cast , , ..
Sculptor means an artist specializing in sculpture.
The traditional forms of sculpture are the statue, the bust and the head. These may be carved in stone, marble, ivory or wood, cast in metal, in bronze, or modeled in clay. Out of may be used instead of in with carve.
e.g. He carved the statue in marble/out of marble/
A statue of a person on a horse is called an equestrian statue.
figure is often used in connection with sculpture, especially in the names of works not representing a particular individual.
e.g. standing/seated/reclining figure
figure of a man/boy/woman
a sculptural group
Composition means how the various elements of the picture are arranged.
e.g. The composition of the picture is very striking.
in the foreground/background
