In Chinese and Western painting, respectively, there are apparent differences in the representation of the vision of nature and the philosophy of art, even though paintings carry nature as their theme in art history. The extent of these differences can be well understood by comparing works of different artists from diverse cultures. The case selected for analysis in this paper comprises the Chinese Northern Song period painter Fan Kuan and the British Romantic painter J. M. W. Turner. This paper compares and contrasts the two artists regarding their perceptions of nature and aesthetic systems. Various perspectives of nature can be explained by works like Fan Kuan's Travelers Among Mountains and Streams and William Turner's The Blizzard or Snowstorm. This paper uses a qualitative research approach to understand how the two painters depict their understanding of the topic through their creativity. Many of the works painted by Fan Kuan illustrate the Confucianistic notion of 'heaven-men unity', focusing on such aspects of nature as peacefulness and timelessness. On the other hand, Turner in his paintings responds to the relation of the age of romance to the force of light, the force of colours, Turner responds to this power of the age. The study findings reveal that though the two painters had a clear distinction based on their cultural origin, style, and thought on philosophical matters, both the painters had artistic interpretations of the natural world in their use of artistic forms.
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