Initially influenced by Dutch and Italian tradition, landscape painting gradually earned an identity in its own right, notably through the work of the Welsh artist Richard Wilson (1714-1782). Gainsborough depicted the English countryside with novel sensitivity, where light and nature were offered pride of place. John Constable (1776-1837) then further developed the genre through his attentive observation of rural landscapes and atmospheric phenomena. His works transcribe his deep fondness of the English countryside and its transformations. Concurrently, Turner explored the effects of light, colour and natural elements, his seascapes and stormy scenes bearing witness to his dynamic—sometimes sublime—vision of nature, associated with the vicissitudes of history. His work paved the way to a new pictorial modernity, in which landscape painting supplanted historical painting at the apex of the hierarchy of the arts.

Frédéric Ogée is a professor in literature and history of British art at the University of Paris Cité and the Ecole du Louvre, where he lectures on the English School of painting (for the period 2023-2026). His key research topics are aesthetics, literature and art during and around the 18th century (1660-1850) in the United Kingdom. He has given a number of conferences on these subjects in universities throughout Europe, the United States and Asia. Commissioner of the exhibition on the English artist William Hogarth at the Louvre in 2006, he is also the author of several books, in particular Diderot and European Culture, a collection of essays (Oxford: 2006, new edition 2009), J. M. W. Turner: Les paysages absolus (Hazan, 2010) and Jardins et Civilisations (Valenciennes, 2019), following a conference organised at the European Institute of Gardens and Landscapes. He is currently writing a series of major monographs in French on British artists for the publishers Cohen & Cohen. The first, Thomas Lawrence-Le génie du portrait anglais, was published in December 2022. The next one, on the great landscape painter J.M.W. Turner, is due to be published in late 2026. From 2014 to 2017, he was a member of the Tate Britain scientific committee in London and, from 2014 to 2022, acted as a member of the Paris City Council scientific committee. Since January 2026, he has also been a member of the Executive Board of the Fondation des Parcs et Jardins de France.