For this exercise I am to reflect on my views on the idea of the picturesque and consider how this concept has influenced my ideas about landscape art and in particular what constitutes a successful landscape photograph. The link provided in the course manual to the Victoria & Albert Museum’s article on romanticism-romance-sublime-picturesque was not working so I decided to turn to the Tate website for some clarification on the term ‘picturesque’.
According to the Tate website “The word picturesque refers to an ideal type of landscape that has an artistic appeal, in that it is beautiful but also with some elements of wildness”. On the one end of the landscape spectrum we have the sublime (which I have written about here). This is the state of the soul, according to Burke [1909-14 p.39] where all motions are suspended in a sense of horror (astonishment). On the other end we have beauty which Burke explains is a social quality which rouses in the viewer a sense of joy, pleasure and the desire to keep the thing/person of beauty close to us [ibid p. 24]. The picturesque landscape lies midway between these two spectra. It contains aesthetic beauty, but is also at the same time wild and rugged.
Uvedale Price [1796 p. 82-86] states some differences between beauty and picturesque:
- Beauty: smoothness; gradual; ideas of youth and freshness; symmetry
- Picturesque: roughness; sudden variation; age and decay; irregularity
I suppose my images for Assignment 6 would fit into the picturesque category quite well as they are all show age and decay. For me a successful landscape photograph would be one that evokes an emotion in the viewer, some sort of reaction. Something that stirs up long forgotten memories, that triggers an emotion in the viewer.
Reference List
Burke, Edmund (1909 – 14). A Philosophical Inquiry Into The Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful with Several Other Additions [online]. Available at: http://cnqzu.com/library/Philosophy/neoreaction/_extra%20authors/Burke,%20Edmund/Burke%20Edmund-Of%20the%20Sublime%20and%20Beautiful.pdf [accessed 7 May, 2018]
Price, Uvedale, Esq. (1796). An Essay on the Picturesque: as Compared with the Sublime and the Beautiful; and, on the use of Studying Pictures, for the Purpose of Improving Real Landscape. [online] Available at: https://archive.org/details/essayonpicturesq01pric [accessed 7 May, 2018]
Tate.org. Picturesque [online] Available at: http://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/p/picturesque [accessed 7 May, 2018]
Lynda Kuit Photography - Landscape 