![]() Taylor, are ‘irregularity of form, of colour, of light and shade, of texture,’ and in addition ‘intricacy and sudden variation’. The characteristic qualities of the picturesque, according to Mr. Taylor proceeded to define the qualities of the picturesque. There is an historical mistake here (Lord Burlington and Pope started Neo-Classicism and picturesque garden layout at exactly the same moment, in exactly the same places, and with exactly the same conviction)- but we can let that stand for now. Taylor’s arguments ran approximately as follows: The picturesque, viewed historically, came as a reaction against Neo-Classicism and as a kind of Transitional before Romanticism, ‘related to them as Mannerism is to the High Renaissance and the Baroque’. ![]() It prevents the English from facing up to the realities of an industrial age and draws them into irrelevancies and a nostalgia for the past. The picturesque is a sign of imperfect vision. Taylor attributed largely to THE ARCHITECTURAL REVIEW. They were called English Art and the Picturesque and combined an analysis of eighteenth century picturesque theory with an indictment of its effects on England in the last twenty years, effects which Mr. This was the last paragraph of three talks broadcast recently by Mr. But as long as the man of taste or those institutions which have so largely superseded him continue to maintain their influence, as long as they strive to live up to the picturesque identity which we discovered during the years of war, then Stendhal’s condemnation will continue to apply to a very great deal of English art.’ The list could be extended to the present day- and into the fields of architecture and design. These are a few of the painters who have achieved the seriousness and the truth which the picturesque does not provide. ![]() Turner after a process of emancipation, Sickert at his best. Hogarth at his best, Gainsborough when he was most himself, least subject to the influence of taste, Stubbs and Constable consistently. ‘Must English art be picturesque? The historical answer is that many English artists have managed wholly or partially to escape from this imperfect vision. Originally published in AR April 1954, this piece was republished online in September 2012 ![]() Nikolaus Pevsner defends the AR’s promotion of the Picturesque ‘The first feeling-your-way theory of art in European history and far the greatest contribution England has made to aesthetic theory’ ![]()
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