John Macarthur will discuss the themes of his recent book on the picturesque. These are: what the concept of picture does in the picturesque and how this relates to modern theories of the image; how the distaste that we might feel today at the sentimentality of the picturesque was already at play in the 18th century; how visual values such as ‘irregularity’ become the basis of modern architectural planning; how the concept of appropriating a view moves from landscape design into urban design; and, why movement is fundamental to picturing the stillness of buildings, cities and landscapes. Macarthur will then look at a detail of the argument in which he challenges the received view of the Townscape movement. He discusses the affinity that British architects of the 1940s saw between the picturesque, historic conservation and surrealism.

John Macarthur is a Reader in Architecture at the University of Queensland.

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