As the name implies, landscape painting is a painting with the theme of depicting natural scenery of mountains and rivers. However, China's landscape painting is different from western landscape painting. It does not directly copy natural scenery into paintings, but focuses on the management orientation and expression of artistic conception from the perspective of aesthetic art. China's paintings depict landscapes, which were formed in Wei and Jin Dynasties, but at that time they mainly appeared as a foil for figure paintings. Gradually mature in Sui and Tang Dynasties; The landscape painting techniques of the Song and Yuan Dynasties really went to the development path of skillful techniques and diverse styles. Landscape painting in the early Ming and Qing dynasties was retro, followed by some innovative painters to compete with it. Modern landscape painting has been greatly developed by inheriting predecessors and constantly innovating.
The earliest existing landscape painting is You Chuntu by Zhan Ziqian in Sui Dynasty. The composition and proportion of the scenery in this work conform to the visual effect, which has a pioneering role in the development of landscape painting. The creation of landscape painting in the Tang Dynasty developed synchronously with other arts, and made great progress, resulting in outstanding painters such as Li Sixun and Wu Daozi. Li's landscape paintings mostly outline rocks and trees with pen and ink, and the brushwork is vigorous and powerful, and the pictures are colored with green pigments, which is called "green landscape" in history. Li's landscape painting techniques had a great influence on some painters in the Song Dynasty. Wu Daozi is not only famous for figure painting, but also has independent achievements in landscape painting, which has always been praised by people. Another famous landscape painter in the Tang Dynasty was the poet Wang Wei. His works have the beauty of combining poetry and painting, especially ink and wash landscape paintings.
Landscape painting in the Five Dynasties played a connecting role in the history of landscape painting, and produced painters who surpassed their predecessors, such as Hao Jing, Guan Tong and Dong Yuan. Their works have always influenced the development of landscape painting in the future. Hao Jing and Guan Tong mostly use ink painting to express the mountains and rivers in the north, and the pictures are magnificent. Dong Yuan is good at ink painting and light-colored landscape painting, and most of his paintings are picture frames depicting the beauty of mountains and rivers in the south of the Yangtze River. Influenced by painters of the Tang and Five Dynasties, landscape painters of the Northern Song and Southern Song Dynasties also made great progress in landscape painting. The landscape paintings made by Northern Song Dynasty painters, Li Cheng, Fan Kuan and Guo are mostly panoramic views with lofty mountains and rivers and vast territory. Mi Fei and his son, as well as the representative painters of the Southern Song Dynasty, such as Liu Songnian, Li Tang, Ma Yuan and Xia Jue, mainly took the beautiful scenery in the south of the Yangtze River as their theme. Due to the relationship between society and the times, the most prominent feature of landscape painting in Yuan Dynasty is the development of freehand brushwork in ink painting. At that time, most of the painters were dissatisfied with the alien rule and went to the natural landscape to find their feelings, resulting in famous painters such as Huang, Wang Meng, Ni Zan and Zhenwu. These painters' landscape paintings have their own characteristics: Huang's works take Fuchunjiang mountain scenery as the main theme of Dongyuan landscape painting, with light crimson color, lush vegetation and rich peaks; The works of Wang Meng and Ni Zan are unique in composition and concise in brushwork. Zhao Mengfu, a painter in the early Yuan Dynasty who was earlier than these artists, integrated the charm of calligraphy in painting.
Landscape painters in Ming Dynasty seldom have original spirit. Dong Qichang is the representative of the school of landscape painting retro, which influenced some landscape painters in the early Qing Dynasty to make a living by painting, forcing them to approach the ancients. The landscape painters with innovative styles in Qing Dynasty were "four monks", namely, Jianjiang, Shi Huo, Badashanren and Shi Tao. After them, there are Jin Nong and others of "Yangzhou School of Painting". They advocated seeking painting materials and techniques from nature, opposed Chen Xiangyin, and emphasized personality liberation, which had a positive impact on the later development of landscape painting.
Huang is the most influential landscape painter in modern times. He attached importance to sketching, and at the same time paid attention to absorbing the previous painting methods and transforming them, which made landscape painting out of the tendency of retro in the late Qing Dynasty. In addition, Qi Baishi, Xu Beihong, Zhang Daqian and others also contributed to the development of landscape painting. After the founding of New China, the schools and styles of landscape painting presented a diversified situation. In all parts of China, Liu Haisu, who is good at splashing color and ink, Zhang Ding, who is good at sketching, Li Keran, Pan Tianshou, Fu Baoshi, Shilu and Chen Zizhuang are active. Their works, whether huge scrolls or impromptu sketches, have a strong flavor of the times.