This landscape of ruins framed by a densely foliate tree and set against the backdrop of a large mountain is by the writer, printmaker, clergyman and schoolmaster William Gilpin. Gilpin is associated with the promotion of the Picturesque, a concept that he wrote about beginning in 1748. His illustrated accounts of tours that he made in Britain between 1768 and 1776 were published and gave laymen the opportunity to assess both art and the landscape. To the aesthetic categories of the Sublime and the Beautiful, which Gilpin did not favor, he added the idea of the Picturesque, which he argued is evident in the paintings of Claude (c. 1600-1682) and Poussin (1594-1665).
Like other of Gilpin's works, the present sheet uses a darkened foreground to off-set chiaroscuro plays in other areas of the drawing. The handling of the washes in the present sheet and its composition are not unlike the sketches that Sawrey Gilpin (1733-1807), William's younger brother, made for his manuscript "A Fragment, Containing a Description of the Thames, between Windsor, and London: Accompanied by 37 Sketches by Mr. Sawrey Gilpin". William accompanied Sawrey on the trip when he made the sketches for "A Fragment ...".
McCrindle, Joseph F., former owner.