The appeal of landscape: why do we love to look at them, and why don’t we all love them equally?
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Who this event is for
Location
JHB Lecture Theatre, John Henry Brookes Building, Headington Campus
Details
Most people love
landscape, or nature, in some form – whether it’s the wide open spaces of the
seaside and mountains, the gentler charms of parkland, or the familiarity of
our own back gardens and allotments.
Landscape painting
captures the visual appeal of these experiences, but also taps into its wider
associations. Is this love of landscape inborn, a product of our evolutionary
history? Or is it created and/or modified by culture? Why have different types
of landscape been appreciated in different times and places? And why might
people prefer images of rough or calm seas, summer or winter trees, agriculture
or wilderness?
Christiana looks at a
range of examples and theories to answer these questions, focusing in
particular on 19th-century Britain and the paintings of Constable, Palmer and
the Pre-Raphaelites.
About the Speaker
PROFESSOR CHRISTIANA PAYNE
Christiana Payne is
Professor of History of Art at Oxford Brookes. She has curated exhibitions of
19th-century British landscapes, interiors and portraits in London, Cambridge,
Bristol, and New Haven, Connecticut amongst others.Her publications include
Toil and Plenty: images of the Agricultural Landscape in England, 1780-1890.