Localisation of the painter’s canvas: landscape paintings from the Iron Mountains (Czech Republic)

Abstract

ABSTRACTLandscape has always been the focus of artistic interest. Landscape is also the object of research interest of geographers, and it offers a field for cooperation between art and geography. Our study focuses on landscape painting as an important source in identifying landscape changes. We focused on discovering the location where the painter placed his canvas. We used Czech landscape paintings from the end of the nineteenth century in the Iron Mountains. We have combined information about paintings and their authors with terrain analysis in GIS. We have carried out field research and consulted a painter to localise the locations where the landscapes were painted. Main map depicts the sites of selected landscape paintings from where the painters captured the image of the landscape. Our proposed combination of terrain analysis with the information about the paintings and the painters is a convenient way to identify the sites of the paintings.