Picturesque >Landscapes & Gardens > Intro

The object that best defines the Picturesque garden is the Claude glass, a black convex glass that, when held up to the eye, placed a frame around the viewer’s field of vision and gave it a unified tonality. So the Picturesque aesthetic values a garden that appears natural, but has been framed and shaped so that it appears as if it were a picture. Planted elements such as curving branches, or made elements such as arches and doorways, could be used to frame picturesque views. Exotic or quaint plantings (palms, cottage roses) or architectural elements (pagodas, hermit’s caves) are also characteristic of the picturesque garden.