Canadian and French university students, 26 men and 94 women in each group, rendered aesthetic judgments of 20 Canadian and 20 French paintings. The instrument used was a 20-scale form of the semantic differential. Alpha factoring, based on the mean ratings, and varimax rotation was performed for scales as variables. For the Canadians four factors emerged in the order: Dynamism, Visual Tension, Tactility and Evaluation; for the French there were five: Visual Tension, Potency, Tactility, Spatiality and Atmosphere. Correlations between corresponding sets of factor scores were significant. On balance, the French semantic space is more complex and more sophisticated.
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