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Three Essays: On Picturesque Beauty; On Picturesque Travel; and On Sketching Landscape

Author William Gilpin British
Publisher R. Blamire British
1792
Not on view
While working as headmaster of a boys’ school and then, from 1777, as vicar at Boldre in Hampshire, Gilpin wrote essays that explored the picturesque as a new aesthetic concept, one he defined as "that peculiar kind of beauty, which is agreeable in a picture." Associated with pleasingly irregular forms, it was situated between beauty and sublimity. During summer tours, Gilpin visited Wales, the Scottish Highlands, and other remote corners of Britain to seek picturesque sites, and his travelogues inspired a wave of picturesque tourists. Following in his footsteps, with drawing materials in hand, travelers were encouraged to sketch, examining "the face of [the] country by the rules of picturesque beauty" and "adapting the description of natural scenery to the principles of artificial landscape."

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Three Essays: On Picturesque Beauty; On Picturesque Travel; and On Sketching Landscape
  • Author: William Gilpin (British, Scaleby, Cumbria 1724–1804 Boldre, Hampshire)
  • Publisher: R. Blamire (London)
  • Published in: London
  • Date: 1792
  • Medium: Illustrations: aquatint with hand-coloring
  • Dimensions: 9 1/4 x 5 3/4 in. (23.5 x 14.6 cm)
  • Classification: Books
  • Credit Line: Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1936
  • Object Number: 36.17
  • Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints

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Landscape with hills and a lake, William Gilpin British, Pen and black ink, brush and gray wash, on buff paper
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Landscape with hills, a lake, and figures, William Gilpin British, Pen and black ink, brush and gray wash, on buff paper
Landscape with hills, a lake, and figures
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Observations relative chiefly to Picturesque Beauty, made in the year 1776, on several parts of Great Britain; particularly the High-lands of Scotland
William Gilpin
R. Blamire
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Observations relative chiefly to Picturesque Beauty, made in the year 1776, on several parts of Great Britain; particularly the High-lands of Scotland
William Gilpin
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Remarks on forest scenery, and other woodland views, (relative chiefly to picturesque beauty) : Illustrated by the scenes of New-Forest in Hampshire, William Gilpin British
Remarks on forest scenery, and other woodland views, (relative chiefly to picturesque beauty) : Illustrated by the scenes of New-Forest in Hampshire
William Gilpin
R. Blamire
1791

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