Photography was by no means an easy medium for reproducing the natural world in the nineteenth century, with different exposures needed to render sky, sea, land or foliage. The pioneers mastered the constraints of their medium, and their works transformed the way we see the landscape. This book traces the stages they went through in mastering landscape photography, using images taken between 1840 and 1890 from the Musee d'Orsay's rich collections of the photography of this period. The book also features an introduction to landscape photography, detailed catalogue entries for each photograph featured, and a selected bibliography.