WILLIAM GILPIN British, 1724-1804
Picturesque Landscape
in Three Essays: on Picturesque Beauty;
on Picturesque Travel and
on Sketching Landscape, London, 1792
aquatint on pink-toned paper
Lent by UNC-CH's Rare Book Collection

The Reverend William Gilpin had a profound influence in the art world. He had learned topographical landscape drawing through the military, but was more interested in picturesque landscape. In books like this one he defined the picturesque style of representation. The text explains that this print shows how rough, broken contours make for a more interesting landscape composition than smooth ones.

Gilpin was both revered and criticized for his notions of the picturesque. Critics derided him for his formulaic landscapes, lacking naturalism and detail. But his recipes for attractive landscape composition appealed to amateur sketchers and painters, who became increasingly common during the eighteenth century in England. Typically a member of the upper classes who had leisure time for travel, the amateur could be either male or female. Such a person might take this book on a sketching trip and translate Gilpin's ideas into sketches of the actual countryside.