PURPOSE: To provide a picture display device capable of controlling the brightness of pictures without damaging the quality of displayed pictures.

CONSTITUTION: A light reduction filter 4 composed of a liquid crystal shutter or the like is arranged on a transmission light control type display 2 composed of an LCD or the like for which input signals and a light emission amount are provided with nonlinear characteristics. Thus, the brightness of the entire display pictures can be controlled from the extremely low level of luminance to a bright level. As a result, the faithful brightness of the display pictures can be reproduced and the paint-out of black and white does not occur.