Marianne Colston’s Art of Walking: Gendering the Picturesque in Journal of a Tour in France, Switzerland, and Italy

Abstract

In Marianne Colston’s travel narrative walking looms large. Though Colston does not depict herself as a walker, in the lithographs she published alongside her Journal we frequently find locals who walk and explore the landscape. Moreover, her interest in pedestrian mobility seems related to certain activities and social status. It is furthercomplicated, I argue, by her gender position: what is foregrounded in these illustrations is not an aestheticized view of the landscape or of country folks. Rather, Colston set out to create a visual space of her own, a space where she could be seen as an aesthetic subject rather than an aesthetic object.

This chapter emerged from a paper on Marianne Colston’s walking practices originally presented in François Specq’s “Art of Walking” seminar sessions. More recently, I have futher developed my thoughts on the gendering of the picturesque in a conference at Edinburgh University. I wish to thank both François Specq and Viccy Coltman for their useful comments. I am also grateful to Andrew S. Gross for his suggestions and for the fruitful exchanges we had during the “Art of Walking” conference.