Cedar Crest College

Frozen Moments: The picturesque in Romantic literature and art

The ideals of what was picturesque, portrayed in William Gilpin's essays on the picturesque, were not ideas that affected only art. Ideals of the picturesque also made their way into the literature of the time. An example of this would be John Keats's poem "Ode on a Grecian Urn." This piece of poetry and the painting "Hay Wain" by John Constable, both from the Romantic period, exemplifies an interesting aspect of the idea of the picturesque, the desire to freeze and idealize the past and also the search for the perfect moment.

In his essays on the picturesque William Gilpin expresses the ideas of what is picturesque. Some of the concepts expressed are that the picturesque is what is beautiful in its natural state and what is capable of being illustrated in a painting (Gilpin 138). He continues to say, "roughness forms the most essential point of difference between the beautiful, and the picturesque"(Gilpin 138). Another point that Gilpin makes is that one of the most picturesque scenes is those which contain ruins and examples of old architecture, for "these are the richest legacies of art"(Gilpin 140). This looking to ruins, symbols of a past time, suggest the idealization of a simpler, ancient time.

The art of the Romantic period is characterized in part by a popularity of landscapes, possibly influenced by Gilpin's essays. One English artist was John Constable, a great landscapist who "approached nature with an excitement akin to that of the poets Wordsworth, Keats, and Shelley"(Hartt 895). Constable's oil painting "Hay Wain" is an interesting study of light and natural color. He used a simple scene with common rustic elements. His roughness of subject matter and the natural aspect of the scene give this picture a prime classification as a picturesque scene. An interesting point that was first thought of as negative and then, as the movement progressed, more positively, was that the viewer was shown what was actually there. This is in contradiction to the style of the old masters, which was to show what they thought the viewer should see. However realistic his picture may be, the painting does contain a certain longing for the rustic life which was rapidly disappearing during this time period. There is a sense of the desire to freeze the simple moments that Constable's is painting before the sweeping changes that accompanied the Industrial Revolution could take any more away from the rustic lifestyles and ways of the past.

Away from the art world and into the literary scene, John Keats was a second-generation Romantic poet. "Ode on a Grecian Urn," one of his works, which shows his desire to freeze time. The poem shows a scene on a Grecian Urn. He describes the way in which the figures on the Urn are frozen in time and are lucky that way:

Bold lover, never, never canst thou kiss,

Though winning near the goal--yet, do not grieve;

She cannot fade, though thou hast not thy bliss,

For ever wilt thou love, and she be fair! (Keats 852).

Keats's message is that a moment frozen is the only perfection that can be achieved because it is change and habit which destroys the perfection that the imagination can create. It is always the anticipation that is the best part of anything, and it is only the attainment and ultimate disappointment, which ruins things. "Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard / Are sweeter"(Keats 852).

Both Constable's painting and Keats's poem share a commonality in that they share certain characteristics implied in Gilpin's essays. Both works show the idealization of a time, whether it is Keat's Grecian moment or Constable's rustic life. This reflects Gilpin's idea that remnants of old cultures are picturesque, implying a longing for an older age and a simpler time. These feelings would have been prevalent in the culture because of the swells of the Industrial Revolution forcing people into a world of technology that they didn't completely understand. Both the works discussed above contain this sense of longing and dissatisfaction with the actuality of the world.

Another connection is that Constable's painting creates the sort of idyllic moment that Keats paints with his words. The subject matter is different, however the essence of emotions is still very similar. In Constable's painting a peaceful river flows serenely past a rustic house surrounded by bushes, trees and lush greenery. As a wagon, pulled by horses, fords the river a young dog frisks on the side of the water. This scene's reflective and frozen quality has much in common with Keats's description of the young lovers, the priest, and the sacrificial calf, all of which will never change but will live in a moment of perfection because of it serene changelessness.

William Gilpin's essays on the picturesque greatly influenced the Romantics. His ideas can be seen to have correlations not only in the art world, where his concepts can be most easily translated, but also to the content and treatment of poetry.

Constable's "Hay Wain" is an example of this influence in art, as is Keats's poem "Ode on a Grecian Urn," an example in literature. Both of these works have the sense of longing and respect for an older time that is implied in Gilpin's work.