In Gilpin’s essay on picturesque beauty he sought to define and categorize picturesque. For artists have often strove to capture the picturesque nature of a scene in their work, so it would make sense for critics and artists to have a guideline of certain details that would guide one to accomplish that feat. He begins with Burke’s theory that stated that beauty stems from a smooth and neat appearance. However, when he applies it to art he points out that the eye is not drawn to a scene that is completely orderly and smooth. Our eye is not drawn, nor would we admire boring group of three smooth and orderly hills, but add a rough path, give the ground and rocks a rough texture, and our eye finds it much more agreeable. He then seeks to define picturesque through the terms of a certain roughness of quality to a painting, but fails to find a universal truth to define what truly captures or creates the picturesque. He ends by saying it is perhaps best left undefined, since no rule seems to be universal, especially when it comes to the picturesque.
I honestly think that this is why the concept of picturesque has been able to last through the ages. It is a adaptable, and changes as the idea or concept of the idea changes within the population or location. The concept of the picturesque may be completely different from someone who lives in Britain versus someone who lives in Africa. This makes the label picturesque changeable, and expandable, allowing it to adapt with the time and culture. I think this can be said of many art terms, as everyone sees and appreciates something differently. What one person finds beautiful, one may find distasteful, such is the same with the picturesque. The open-ended nature of being not entirely definable gives it the ambiguity needed to remain usable, despite the difference in time periods and locations.
The term picturesque, however, need not be only identified to art. It can also be used when speaking about literature. Much like art, the definition of what makes language picturesque or a scene in a book picturesque is just as complicated to define, and what is picturesque to one person, may not be to another. An author will often try to portray that perfect moment in time, such as a moment where everything falls into place, or in some cases, falls apart. An author will seek to use language to capture the moment. However, if an author were to use “smooth” language, it could very likely be considered boring. Just like art, varied sentence structure and word choice give literature texture, that “rough” quality that catches the reader’s attention and draws them it. Literature also, as has art, changes over the centuries. What one may have considered picturesque language three hundred years ago is probably not considered by most to be picturesque today. By having the term picturesque also be undefined in language, it allows it to change as we change, evolving into something new with each change of our perceptions.
