French School; 18th century. "Country scene". Oil on canvas. It presents craquelure. Measurements: 115 x 90 cm. Oil on canvas of vertical format, in which an image of country character is developed. In the foreground, the artist places a woman with a child next to a dog. The woman turns her face towards a male figure on horseback in the background. This equestrian figure is located at the intersection between the foreground, which shows a natural landscape, and the background, which is dominated by the view of a city. It should be noted that despite the human presence on the canvas, the work is completely dominated by the landscape, which becomes the protagonist of the image. One of the most radical aspects of Romantic painting was the attempt to replace large canvases with historical or religious themes with landscape. They wanted the pure landscape, almost without figures or totally devoid of them, to attain the heroic significance of history painting. They were based on the idea that human feeling and nature should be complementary, one reflected in the other. In other words, landscape should arouse emotion and convey ideas. Thus, landscape painters such as the author of this painting tried to express their feelings through the landscape, rather than imitating it. Romantic landscape had two main aspects: the dramatic, with its turbulent and fantastic views, and the naturalistic, which emphasised images of a peaceful and serene nature, as in this case. It is this second conception that we see embodied in the present work; the painter seeks to communicate a religious reverence for the landscape, nature in its fullness, free from the industrial elements of modern life. Indeed, the artist's use of light here conveys a dreamlike atmosphere, inviting the viewer to meditate and contemplate himself in the landscape. However, the Romantic landscape is made up of very different types of manifestations that are not comparable; it does not affect all national schools equally, and remains more faithful to tradition in schools such as the French and Dutch. Thus, in this canvas we do not find the grandiose scenographies of the British and Germans, the rugged mountains or the monumental Gothic ruins. On the contrary, it is a landscape centred on the foreground, a space enclosed in the background by the city. The more typical elements of the Romantic landscape, such as the hostile climate or the Gothic ruins, are absent. Likewise, the typical Romantic perspective is used, with a very marked abyss, complemented by a slight confusion of points of view. Despite these local differences, despite this romanticism contained in the form, we nevertheless find a clearly poetic content, which goes beyond the simple representation of nature to depict nature as a reflection of the author's feelings. Dimensions 115 x 90 cm.