A Mountain View 

Hercules Brabazon Brabazon painted this watercolour of a mountain view sometime in the late 19th century. Brabazon was an English artist, and his work shows the influence of Impressionism. He was part of a generation of artists who found freedom in landscape painting, using it to express a sense of feeling, rather than topographical accuracy. Here, we see that the rugged peaks and sweeping valleys are evoked with loose washes of colour. In Britain at this time, there was growing appreciation for the aesthetic qualities of watercolour and, indeed, of landscapes that were previously considered wild and unmanageable. The late 19th century saw the rise of tourism, and the commodification of scenic views. To understand this work better, we might want to look into the art market of Victorian England, and the ways in which landscape painting was used to create a sense of national identity. Landscape, after all, is never just a picture of nature, it's an image invested with cultural values.