River Landscape with Ruins
Description:
The landscape contains a winding river that passes by a group of ruined castles in the distance. In the foreground is a mass of trees on the left and groups of bushes and small trees in the center and right of the watercolor. The sky is misty with diffused light.
Copyright:
Copyright, 2009, Romantic Circles.
Accession Number:
1988.23.3
Height (in centimeters):
24
Width (in centimeters):
37
Provenance
Dr. Marc FitchExhibition History
1982 Leger Galleries, "English Watercolors and Drawings," no. 28Marks Description
Artist's dry stamp, lower right verso: Lugt 2622aAssociated Events
Picturesque tours, like those along the River Wye, were promoted by travel books published by Gilpin and others and became popular pastimes in the eighteenth century. Tours in search of scenes identified as picturesque were sought out all over the country, though the River Wye was a very popular destination (W. Gilpin, River Wye 24-34). Gilpin's picturesqe tours in the 1770s took him to northern and southern Wales, the southern coast of England, and western England.Associated Places
The River Wye, in Wales and England, was a popular destination for pleasure travelers in search of the picturesque scenes depicted by Gilpin. This illustration was most likely the product of one of these trips (W. Gilpin, River Wye).Subject
The landscape depicts a winding river that passes by a group of ruined castles in the distance. In the foreground is a mass of trees on the left and groups of bushes and small trees in the center and right of the watercolor. The sky is misty with diffused light.Significance
William Gilpin is famous for his theories on the picturesque and for the travel books he produced as guides to amateurs for finding picturesque scenes. These books included sketches made by Gilpin either during his tours, or inspired by them shortly afterwards, such as River Landscape with Ruins. The picturesque was a staple aesthetic aspect of romantic culture, falling somewhere in between what was considered to be the beautiful and the sublime. It was a popular movement to produce and capture the picturesque, though there were skeptics on the legitimacy of the picturesque as an aesthetic category. Gilpin’s definition of the picturesque is often vague, and at times may seem self-contradictory. It valued singularity and variety, roughness and a stimulating irregularity. At its core, the definition of a picturesque scene was a scene that looked like a picture. Also, some critics had problems with the accuracy of Gilpin’s illustrations, for he often modified a scene, adding artificial picturesque elements in order to make it what he considered "more picturesque" (J. Roberts, Gilpin). Nevertheless, he earned quite a name for himself, and his first three picturesque books were very successful, amounting to about £400 (M. Andrews, “Gilpin, William" Oxford DNB).Bibliography
Andrews, Malcolm. “Gilpin, William (1724–1804).” Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Ed. H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. Oxford: OUP, 2004. 5 Apr. 2009Long Title
William Gilpin, British, 1724-1804, River Landscape with Ruins, 1770s, pen and black ink with gray wash over graphite on laid paper, 24 x 37.3 cm. (9 1/2 x 14 11/16 in.), Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund, 1988.23.3, NGA.Featured in Exhibit:
From the Collection:
Painter:
Image Date:
1770