Kinderdijk Landscape

Sometimes a landscape is God's artwork and sometimes, as here, the hand of man creates upon God's drawing board. The word "landscape", recorded for the first time in 1598, seems to have been invented by 16th century Dutch artists during the period when they were becoming masters of the landscape genre. The Dutch word "landschap" had meant simply a region, or tract of land, however when the word entered into the English language it acquired an artistic sense, meaning a painting of scenery on land. Originally, the English word "landscape" was used only to describe landscapes in paintings, not real life vistas of natural scenery as is used today.