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Article: Pretty as a picture: Australia and the imperial picturesque.(Fatal Shores)
- Article from:
- Journal of Australian Studies
- Article date:
- June 1, 1997
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1997 Australia Research Institute, Curtin University of Technology. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Today the word `picturesque' has become a useful way of saying `pretty' without sounding trite. To describe something as picturesque suggests a greater and more refined degree of evaluation. The term can be traced to the eighteenth century, where it grew from meaning simply `subjects suitable for painting' to become a form of aesthetic.(1) Nevertheless, as an aesthetic category, the picturesque never really escaped the circularity of its etymology. To be picturesque was to conform to the compositional format that was considered pleasing in a painting. It involved concepts of symmetry, balance and an order between the various components of the painting -- the foreground ...