Picturesque > Intro

The Picturesque is a late eighteenth-century aesthetic movement that shares many of the concerns and styles of Romanticism. In Picturesque designs, the material is composed “as if for a picture.” In fact, one hallmark of the picturesque is the construction of frames that define what viewers are intended to see and appreciate. Picturesque imagery included colorful rural people and customs, exotic settings and costumes, classical architecture in ruins, and nature in an imperfect state such as fallen trees, craggy rocks or cliffs, or winding streams. “Shaggy” and “serpentine” are qualities sought by the Picturesque artist.