William Gilpin (painter)

William Gilpin in an engraving from 1869

William Gilpin (born June 4, 1724 in Carlisle , † April 5, 1804 in Boldre ) was an English artist , clergyman of the Church of England , headmaster and writer . He became known as one of the originators of the idea of the picturesque ( picturesque beauty , "scenic beauty"), by which he meant a derived from the disorder of nature's beauty with picture quality that it the ideal both of landscape painting as well as the English landscape garden rose .

Youth and job

Gilpin was from the County of Cumberland , he was the son of John Bernard Gilpin (born 1701), a cavalry master and amateur artist. William was an avid draftsman and collector of engravings and prints from a very early age. Unlike his brother, Sawrey Gilpin , who became a painter, after graduating from Queen's College , Oxford in 1748, he chose a career in the church.

While he was still in Oxford, his book A Dialogue upon the Gardens ... appeared anonymously in Stow , Buckinghamshire ("A conversation about the gardens in Stowe ..."). With the book, which combined description of gardens with aesthetic observations, Gilpin began to develop the idea of ​​the picturesque . Even more unusual at the time than his appreciation of wild and rugged mountain landscapes, which can be explained with his childhood in Cumberland , Gilpin's approach, which was detached from considerations such as morality or usefulness, was exclusively bound to aesthetic criteria.

After working as a candidate and teacher at the school in Cheam , he became its director in 1755. He was a teacher of enlightenment , the physical punishment replaced by a system of fines and to apply the boys encouraged gardens. Gilpin left Cheam in 1777 with his wife Margaret, for a job as a pastor in Boldre ( New Forest , Hampshire ) to accept.

Gilpin's concept of the picturesque

1768 marked Gilpin in his Essays on prints ( "treatises on stitches"), the picturesque as "the kind of beauty Which is agreeable in a picture" ( "the kind of beauty that is pleasing in a picture") and developed his "principles of picturesque beauty ” (“ Principles of picturesque beauty ”), which he based largely on his knowledge of landscape painting. During the 1760s and 1770s he reviewed the rules on extensive trips during the summer holidays; his landscape descriptions and sketches found their way into his own travel notes.

Penrith Castle ruin from 1772 Gilpin's book on Cumberland and Westmoreland

Gilpin's travel manuscripts circulated among friends, including the poet William Mason , and in a larger circle, including Thomas Gray , Horace Walpole, and George III. a castle. In 1782, at Mason's instigation , Gilpin published in London the Observations on the River Wye and several parts of South Wales, etc., relative chiefly in Picturesque Beauty; made in the summer of the year 1770 ("Observations along the River Wye and some areas of South Wales, etc., mainly with regard to their picturesque beauty; made in the summer of 1770"). The book was illustrated with etchings by his nephew William Sawrey Gilpin , which he had made using the still new aquatint process. The work was followed in 1791 by a book on the Lake District and western England and, after moving to Boldre , the Remarks on Forest Scenery, and other woodland views ... ("Notes on forest scenes and other views of wooded areas ...").

For Gilpin, a landscape section was only "really" picturesque if the scene fulfilled two conditions: It had to be suitable in terms of its nature ("rough", "peculiar", "varied", "broken", without straightforward details) and in terms of its nature Combining various elements includes: a dark “foreground” with a direct view of a central object or two objects to the side, a lighter “middle ground” and a “background” that remains inaccurate at a greater distance. The ruin of an abbey or castle could be added as an effective design element.

A low point of view (of the viewer or strolling) underlines the sublime , the "sublime", and is therefore always preferable to the view from an elevated position. Gilpin saw the natural specifications of a scene in terms of properties and colors mostly fulfilled, but criticized the mostly inadequate compositional whole: the artist needed the helpful addition, for example through well-considered placement of an additional tree.

In contrast to other travel writers of his time, such as Thomas Pennant , Gilpin gave little space to historical accounts and also saved with facts and anecdotes. His descriptions left a lot in the rough and were often limited to depicting the situation in terms of picturesque beauty . One of Gilpins much-cited exaggeration was the statement that the skillful use of a wooden hammer could give the unsatisfactorily ruinous gable of Tintern Abbey the picturesque beauty it needed.

Although Gilpin received some criticism and was occasionally the subject of satirical ridicule ( William Combe : The Tour of Dr Syntax in Search of the Picturesque. A Poem (1812) ), the timing was right for his publications. Improved road connections on the British Isles coupled with travel restrictions on mainland Europe led to an increase in domestic tourism in the 1780s and 1790s. Many of these travelers looking for the picturesque drew themselves or spoke about what they saw in expressions of landscape painting. Gilpin's books were the appropriate companions for a contemporary new generation of travelers.

William Gilpin, portrait by Henry Walton

Gilpin and the Consequences

Although Gilpin expressed himself critical of artificial landscaping a few times, he viewed picturesque mainly as a set of rules for describing nature. It was left to others, above all Richard Payne Knight , Uvedale Price and Thomas Johnes , to develop Gilpin's ideas into more extensive aesthetic theories and to make them applicable to landscape design and architecture. In the end, in the mid-19th century, all those great theories about the beauty of unbridled nature led to a “tamed” picturesque beauty that was made usable for commerce. Gilpin's work remained popular nonetheless, and several new editions appeared, supplemented by John Heaviside Clark . Many a photo tourist might unconsciously adopt Gilpin's views of the landscape that have become common knowledge when looking for a motif .

In addition to his writings on picturesque, Gilpin published numerous works on moral and religious subjects as well as biographies on Hugh Latimer , Thomas Cranmer and John Wyclif . He used part of the proceeds from his books in his parish for charity, including equipping the school in Boldre, which bears his name today. Many of his manuscripts, including all or part unpublished material, are kept in the Bodleian Library in Oxford .

literature

• Malcolm Andrews: The search for the picturesque: landscape aesthetics and tourism in Britain, 1760-1800 . Scholar Press, 1989.
• Francesca Orestano: Gilpin and the picturesque . In: Garden History , Vol. 31, 2, 2004.
• Joan Percy: In pursuit of the picturesque: William Gilpin's Surrey excursion. Surrey Gardens Trust, 2001.
• Michael Symes: William Gilpin at Painshill . Painshill Park Trust, 1994.

Web links

Commons : William Gilpin  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

• Tate Gallery, London, works on paper in stock
• William Gilpin: Observations, relative chiefly to Picturesque Beauty ... . London 1792. Online: (Part 1) , (Part 2) .

This article is a slightly abbreviated translation from the English Wikipedia from March 3, 2012