Poetic Visions, an exhibition of landscape art that explores the different ways that artists looked at the Scottish landscape during the 19th century, will be showing at Perth and Kinross Museum and Art Gallery over the coming months.

Drawn entirely from the collections of the Museum and Art Gallery, the exhibition of around 35 works concentrates on the period fashion for so-called ‘picturesque’ and ‘romantic’ landscapes.

Many of the views focus on Perthshire, such as the hills and lochs of The Trossachs and the landscapes around Perth, Dunkeld and Kenmore.

Reference is made in the exhibition to the many literary associations with the landscape such as Robert Burns’ visit to the Falls of Moness and the subsequent re-naming of it as ‘The Birks of Aberfeldy’.

In the 18th and 19th centuries the Scottish landscape inspired artists and writers due to its ‘picturesque’ and ‘romantic’ qualities.

The term ‘picturesque’ means like a picture. It originated as a style of landscape design which was in turn inspired by paintings of the Italian landscape. They concentrated on open vistas with distant mountains, sometimes bathed in a golden glow. When artists painted the Scottish landscape, they tended to select views that lent themselves to a ‘picturesque’ interpretation.

‘Romantic’ landscape painting has its origins in literature. The idea was to capture an emotional response to the experience of being close to nature. Painters tended to exaggerate the rugged aspects of the landscape and emphasised weather conditions for dramatic effect.

The exhibition will be on show at Perth Museum & Art Gallery from 23 December 2006 until 5 May 2007. Opening hours are 10am to 5pm and admission is free.