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...
Artist and writer. Born 3 Hamilton Terrace. Other work by Ayrton in London: Minotaur at London Wall. Died at his London flat. Our picture is a self portrait from 1966.
Artist, born in Edinburgh. In 1933 he won a scholarship to the Edinburgh College of Art. In 1938 he was made a fellow of the college at the relatively young age of 31. He studied in Paris at the Ac...
Satirical artist and illustrator. Trained as an engraver, he depicted the unseemly behaviour of contemporaries in works like 'The Beggar's Opera' (1728) and 'A Rake's Progress' (1732). Much of his ...
Artist. Born William Newzam Prior Nicholson in Nottinghamshire. Worked in many fields of art: painter of still-lifes, landscapes and portraits; wood-engraver; illustrator; and designer for the thea...
