American Impressionism
and Traditional Landscape Painting

Traditional Landscape Painting a technique of painting landscapes as close to what is seen in nature as possible; recreated from carefully rendered sketches and notes in a painting studio.

Notice the tightly defined forms and solid draftmanship present in this painting, California Poppies by Elmer Wachtel.

Compare Wachtel's painting to a traditional American landscape painting, Yosemite Valley by Bierstadt.

Notice also in Bierdstadt's landscape an illusion of depth characteristic of traditional painting. This is present in Wachtel's painting above and also in this painting by William Wendt, I Lifted Mine Eyes. A traditional painting style is not dominant, but is still lingering in both of these paintings.