Why A Crooked Tree Is Beautiful

The Picturesque Movement: an 18th century re-evaluation of nature and the beauty of the rustic

The last work published of the Rev. William Gilpin, M.A., prebendary of Salisbury, and vicar of Boldre, near Lymington : representing the effect of a morning, a noon tide, and an evening sun, in thirty designs from nature (1810). Source Wikimedia Commons

We tend to think of the natural world as a place where life exists before the effects of human interference. Phrases like “unspoiled nature” indicate our attachment to the idea of an untouched realm, and perhaps also implicate humans in a grave process…