Special Collections Sunday : Picturesque Bristol

Back by popular demand! We first ran this event in May. We had such good feedback with many people requesting a re-run we have decided to do it all again for this year's Heritage Open Days.

September's Special Collection Sunday guest curator is Adrian Jordin. Adrian is a Friend of Bristol Central Library and is the lead volunteer on the Pictorial Survey project, creating a database for the library’s collection of photographs, postcards and engravings.

“I pray you let us satisfy our eyes

With the memorials and the things of fame

That do renown this city.” (Twelfth Night)

Derived from the Italian ‘pittoresco’, “from a picture,” the term picturesque defines an object or view worthy of being included in a picture. The picturesque was formulated into an aesthetic category in late eighteenth-century Britain, where it was primarily applied to the practices of landscape painting and garden and park design.

In the mid-eighteenth century, tourists who followed the cult of the picturesque travelled to untamed areas of the British Isles in pursuit of this visual ideal. Drawn from the library’s specialist collections and from the Pictorial Survey collection of images, this display of paintings, drawings and engravings by mostly Bristol Artists looks at what was considered worthy of illustration in Bristol and surrounding areas in years gone by.

“Disputes about beauty might perhaps be involved in less confusion, if a distinction were established, which certainly exists, between such objects as are beautiful, and such as are picturesque—between those, which please the eye in their natural state; and those, which please from some quality, capable of being illustrated by painting.”

—William Gilpin, Three Essays on Picturesque Beauty, 1794

This is an open event, no booking required. Please be aware that the capacity of the Bristol Room is limited and you may have to wait if there is a high demand. We are keen to make this event open to all interested whilst ensuring the safety of our visitors and the collections.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Bristol Central Library, Deanery Road, Bristol, United Kingdom