Rev. William Gilpin

William Gilpin was an English artist and author whose most important contribution to British art was the codification of the notion of the picturesque. The son of an influential artist, Gilpin was born in Cumberland and attended Queen’s College at Oxford. In 1748, a visit to the gardens at Stowe inspired his “A Dialogue upon the Gardens of the Right Honourable the Lord Viscount Cobham at Stowe,” his first essay on his ideas of aesthetics. Throughout his life, Gilpin traveled widely throughout Britain, writing on the idea of the picturesque. He frequently traveled in Wales, and his Observations of the River Wye was indispensible for artists and picturesque tourists alike.