Artist, author, cleric and schoolmaster. He was a sketcher and collector of prints, and worked as a curate, before becoming a master, and then headmaster at Cheam School. In 1768 he published 'Essay on Prints' in which he defined the picturesque as 'that kind of beauty which is agreeable in a picture'. This resulted in him being satirised by William Combe and Thomas Rowlandson as 'Dr Syntax'.
Credit for this entry to: Alan Patient of www.plaquesoflondon.co.uk
This section lists the memorials where the subject on this page is commemorated:
William Gilpin
William Gilpin 1724 - 1804 These flats have been built on the site of Cheam S...
Venetian painter. When the supply of Grand Tourists coming to Venice and buying his paintings dried up due to war, Canaletto decided to come to England. He arrived in 1746 and stayed until 1755, ...
Born Tipton, Staffordshire. Artist, one of the chief exponents of the ‘Glasgow Style’ of art. Married to Charles Rennie Mackintosh. The picture shows her seated in front of one of her works. Died 3...
Author and artist. Born Mary Caldwell. She studied art and became a children's book illustrator. Her husband Herbert Tourtel, was news editor of the Daily Express. In 1920 the newspaper was looking...
Painter and writer. Born in Zurich as Johann Heinrich Füssli, worked mainly in England. The birth date we give is from the ODNB who warn that he later lied about it. His paintings often depict t...
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