Nature has had her day

"Nature had had her day, as he put it.  By the disgusting sameness of her landscapes and skies, she had once and for all wearied the considerate patience of aesthetes.  Really, what dullness! the dullness of the specialist confined to his narrow work.  What manners! the manners of the tradesman offering one particular ware to the exclusion of all others.  What a monotonous storehouse of fields and trees! What a banal agency of mountains and seas! 

There is not one of her inventions, no matter how subtle or imposing it my be, which human genius cannot create; no fountainbleau forest, no moonlight which a scenic setting flooded with electricity cannot produce; no waterfall which hydraulics cannot imitate to perfection; no rock which pasteboard cannot be made to resemble; no flower which taffetas and delicately painted papers cannot simulate.

There can be no doubt about it: this eternal driveling, old woman is no longer admired by true artists, and the moment has come to replace her by artifice."

-Huysman's "Against the Grain"