Joseph Mallord William Turner was born in England in 1775 and died in 1851. According to the National Gallery website, Turner was known as "the painter of light" because of the brilliant colors of his landscapes and seascapes. A particular climate effect of the time may have made his sunsets even more impressive. In 1815, the Tambora volcano erupted in Indonesia, throwing up massive amounts of ash into the atmosphere. An ash-induced secondary glow may account for the splendid sunset in Turner's "Chichester Canal", says The Geological Survey website. The painting, completed in 1818, is arguably Turner's finest sunset landscape.
Vincent van Gogh was a Dutch post-impressionist painter of the mid to late 1800s. Many of his numerous landscape paintings feature sunsets, the fading light often playing a symbolic role. One of Van Gogh's favorite images was that of a farmer throwing seeds across a field, often accompanied by the light of the setting sun. The sun silhouettes the farmer in both "The Sower" and "The Sower at Sunset". In the latter, the symbolic role of the sun is particularly powerful. "Vastly enlarged as it nears the horizon, the sun glows like a halo behind the sower's bowed head," says the E. G. Bührle Collection website.
Claude Monet was one of the founders of French impressionism. His Haystacks series, begun in 1890, consists of a series of 25 paintings, each featuring stacks of hay in various light conditions. The series includes three sunset paintings, the most famous being Monet's "Grainstack (Sunset)". Monet painted the same haystacks in snowy conditions and during a thaw, both accompanied by the light of the setting sun. One of Monet's other classic works, "San Giorgio Maggiore by Twilight", portrays the monastery island of San Giorgio in Venice. The sunset illuminates the sky over the monastery and spills out across the surrounding water.
Frederic Edwin Church was an American painter and a key figure in the Hudson River School of landscape artists. Born in 1826, Church was primarily concerned with painting highly detailed landscapes, amassing a large body of work by the time of his death in 1900. He traveled the world, seeking out rich natural panoramas and stunning skies. His most famous sunset scenes include "Icebergs and Wreck in Sunset", "July Sunset, Berkshire County, Massachusetts" and "Sunset in Ecuador".