Drawing with auditory hallucinations can be an interesting experience. The drawing Queen Elizabeth I Pushing Fish on the Naked Beast is a direct result of talking with them while drawing. Following figure drawing they were questioning me about beauty, and they seem to be hung up on art should be beautiful. So that resulted in a conversation about the 19th century ideas of picturesque and sublime. They thought it was wishy washy BS that was out of date.
Picturesque originally started as a travelogue sort of thing in England. Gilpin was the first in this crowd. The idea being to paint these landscapes as places a person wants to be. Other words that come to my mind when I think of picturesque are quaint and pretty. Cottages make frequent appearances. These images push back against the industrialization and burgeoning science that was taking hold in England at that time.
William Gilpin
The following was a before and after by the gardener Reypton. Reypton was critical of the picturesque as a passing phase, but he still employed it in his design work. This is a before and after of his own backyard. Notice he got rid of the homeless one-legged war veteran.
It is also an idealized classist view, farm life was difficult in the 19th century. Farm animals were often underfed, but these paintings typically do not show that. Constable comes to my mind for picturesque. Most of his career was spent painting his family lands in the Stour Valley, although he was not well liked by the London Academy. He was criticized for his humble subject matter, and one critic described one of his paintings as "a nasty green thing." Constable did appear to have sympathy for the poor as seen in his painting Dedham Vale, but latter in life he would say the Reform Act of 1832 was giving the reigns of government over to "the rabble and dregs of the people, and the devil's agents on earth." The Reform Act of 1832 was a bill that expanded voting rights. There was some variability within Britain. In some parts all men could vote, but in others only land owners. Often landowners (which Constable was) were basically just picking the MP for their borough for Parliament, and people working their lands had no say whatsoever.
The Haywain
Sublime paintings on the other hand are about awe; they are about pointing out how small we humans are compared to nature. Pretty is not a word I would use to describe them. Sublime has it's origins as philosophical idea by Edmund Burke. He thought pleasure would be gained from viewing terrifying situations. In my mind the painter who best exemplified this is the German painter Friedrich. Below are some of his pieces. Friedrich's thoughts on art were "Art stands as the mediator between nature and humanity. The original is too great and too sublime for the multitude to grasp."
Monk by the Sea
Abbey in the Oak Forest
Turner as well I believe is counted as a sublime artist; he is also one of my favorites. He was often offensive to people with his brash cockney manners; he also had interests in science ranging from optics to geology. He was also quite crazy. One story I heard about him in grad school was that he had himself tied to the mast of a ship during a very bad storm at sea, so he could see what it was like. Another point of consideration with Turner's work is that he wasn't always good at selecting color fast paints, so consequently his paintings would often change after only a month. So what we see is not what he painted.
Snow Storm: Steam Boat off a Harbour's Mouth
Rain, Steam, and Speed
Now does this have bearing on modern times? I think the popularity of Thomas Kinkade (in particularly in doctors' offices of the 90's-2000's), whom I would describe as bad picturesque, would indicate that the picturesque is still present. Note the cottage.
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