{"id":1723,"date":"2018-01-07T14:33:42","date_gmt":"2018-01-07T22:33:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.maureeneppstein.com\/mve_journal\/?p=1723"},"modified":"2018-01-07T14:33:42","modified_gmt":"2018-01-07T22:33:42","slug":"the-appeal-of-the-picturesque","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.maureeneppstein.com\/mve_journal\/?p=1723","title":{"rendered":"The appeal of the picturesque"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve been wondering: what is it about an old house or barn that appeals so much that we describe the scene as \u201cpicturesque.\u201d The question came up as I reread a January 1970 letter to my parents describing the purchase of a house in Cupertino, CA. Our new home was a typical early 1960s tract house with scalloped trim and prominent garage. The place was certainly not picturesque, but it was within our price range. I wrote:<\/p>\n

\"Cupertino<\/a>

Our Cupertino house when we bought it in 1970<\/p><\/div>\n

It\u2019s a very nice little house \u2013 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, big sitting room with dining area at one end, small family room opening to a neat little kitchen, 2-car garage with laundry facilities in it. Very attractive inside, though not very prepossessing from the outside. However, this is just a matter of landscaping \u2013 other houses in the street are just lovely, but the garden of this one is just bare grass.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em>Looking back on that time, what comes most vividly to mind is another house I saw while house-hunting, a charming old farmhouse dating from the time when the Santa Clara Valley was so full of orchards it was called \u201cThe Valley of Heart\u2019s Delight.\u201d As I walked through with the realtor, I paused in what must have been a utility porch and mud room. The unfinished walls of the room were black with mold. The realtor shrugged when I pointed it out. The price was right, but I chose not to make an offer.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a significant difference, of course, between the picturesque, which has been defined<\/a> as that kind of beauty which is agreeable in a picture <\/em>and a habitable structure for humans. But what is it in the human psyche that is drawn to the antique? Rummaging around on the web, I found quotes such as:<\/p>\n

(esp. of a place) attractive in appearance, especially in an old-fashioned way<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em>A picturesque place is attractive and interesting, and has no ugly modern buildings.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Jerry's<\/a>

Old truck and barn by Jerry Peters, as shown at the Portola Art Gallery.<\/p><\/div>\n

My friend Sandy Peters<\/a> says it well. Commenting on a Portola Art Gallery<\/a> exhibition of her husband Jerry Peters\u2019 paintings of old battered trucks in rural settings, she wrote: They demonstrate how the beauty of nature blends seamlessly with the wisdom of age.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em>However, with age comes death. When we first moved to Mendocino seventeen years ago, a cabin stood among the trees along Highway 128, not far north of Yorkville. Its bare board were gray with age, the sway-backed roof shingles covered with moss. Over the years, the roof has slowly caved in, until now the cabin is a jumbled pile of boards. At first it was picturesque. Now when I drive by, I am sad.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve been wondering: what is it about an old house or barn that appeals so much that we describe the scene as \u201cpicturesque.\u201d The question came up as I reread a January 1970 letter to my parents describing the purchase of a house in Cupertino, CA. Our new home was a typical early 1960s tract […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[262,156,383,260],"tags":[427,476,475],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maureeneppstein.com\/mve_journal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1723"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maureeneppstein.com\/mve_journal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maureeneppstein.com\/mve_journal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maureeneppstein.com\/mve_journal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maureeneppstein.com\/mve_journal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1723"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.maureeneppstein.com\/mve_journal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1723\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1728,"href":"https:\/\/www.maureeneppstein.com\/mve_journal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1723\/revisions\/1728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maureeneppstein.com\/mve_journal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maureeneppstein.com\/mve_journal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maureeneppstein.com\/mve_journal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}