June’s post led to a discussion of vertical lines. Three pictures are shown here that show not only vertical lines but also put them either at the center of a picture or where they frame a path in the center of the picture:

(1) In the 19th century, Pierre Etienne Theodore Rousseau put a road lined by trees pretty much into the center of his painting ‘Village of Becquigny”.rousseau.jpg

Last week, Dave Caldwell published a picture of the Appalachian Trail in the NYT with a similar composition.
dcaldwell.jpg

A photo by Seth Kugel, also last week in the NYT, makes the same point, vertical lines pretty much at the center of the scene!

skugel.jpg

Has Rousseau’s point of view – centered vertical lines – caught on 2 centuries later? What has happened to the convention of putting objects of interest discreetly at some ‘third’ aspect of the picture?