View of Aricia 1843

Eduard Wilhelm Pose made this pencil drawing, View of Aricia, in 1842. This delicate rendering of a distant hilltop town speaks to the tradition of landscape painting which was intimately tied to the rise of tourism. The growth of train travel made picturesque places like Aricia in Italy more accessible to northern Europeans. The institutional history of landscape painting is an interesting one. It was initially considered to be at the bottom of the academic hierarchy of artistic genres. It was deemed less worthy than history painting or portraiture, for example. Over time, though, it grew in cultural importance. As the cult of nature and the sublime took hold, there was a corresponding increase in the popularity of landscape art. The market for topographical views and landscape paintings reflected this change. To understand the social conditions that made this drawing possible, we can consult travel guides, train schedules, and hotel registries. These sources will provide invaluable context. Considering art’s entanglement with social and institutional forces gives us a richer, more nuanced understanding.