Three essays: on picturesque beauty; on picturesque travel; and on sketching landscape: to which is added a poem on landscape painting by GILPIN, William (1724-1804) - 1792

London: Printed for R. Blamire, in the Strand, 1794, 1792. Full Calf. Fine. First Edition of this seminal text of a key concept of the Romantic movement. 8vo: [4],viii,88;v,[3],44,iii,[1]pp, with seven unsigned plates: six tinted and colored landscapes and a diagram demonstrating the rules of perspective. The poem has a divisional title, 'On landscape painting, a poem', and separate pagination and register. With errata slip bound in facing p. 85. Full cat's-paw calf, boards framed with gilt roll, spine in six compartment, each with gilt stylized tree ornament, between raised bands, gilt edges and dentelles, red leather lettering piece gilt, blue marbled endpapers, pink silk page marker. Rebacked with original spine relaid, very occasional pale browning, the odd spot and crease, else an excellent example. Templeman, pp. 133-46 (for detailed discussion of Gilpin's concept of the picturesque). Abbey (Life) 129. Henrey II, Prideaux, p. 337. Hardie, p. 120 (for a description of Gilpin's tinting technique). Lowndes II 895. Bland, p. 247 ("his books are important because they exemplify a new attitude to nature . . . an attitude which for want of a better word we call Romantic.). According to Chilvers & Osborne, Gilpin was "first to establish the picturesque as an aesthetic category and by his numerous writings, illustrated by his own fine aquatints, he exerted a profound and lasting influence on both English and European taste in natural and artificial scenery and landscape painting." Gilpin's Essay on Prints, published anonymously in 1768, first defines 'picturesque' as "a term expressive of that peculiar kind of beauty, which is agreeable in a picture." A more detailed definition required the examples of his picturesque tours, published between 1782 and 1809 (eventually running to eleven volumes). Picturesque tourism, he wrote in the first of his tour books, constituted "a new object of pursuit." N. B. With few exceptions (always identified), we only stock books in exceptional condition. All orders are packaged with care and posted promptly. Satisfaction guaranteed. (Fine Editions Ltd is a member of the Independent Online Booksellers Association, and we subscribe to its codes of ethics.).