Observations on several parts of England, particularly the mountains and lakes of Cumberland and Westmoreland : relative chiefly to picturesque beauty, made in the year 1772
William Gilpin's 1808 Observations on the mountains and lakes of Cumberland and Westmoreland, printed in London by T. Cadell and W. Davies, was written to guide travellers toward picturesque scenery and illustrated with aquatint views. The four pictures here are oval vignettes of craggy hills, cloud-filled skies and tree-framed foregrounds, rendered in sepia and grey tones. A designer might borrow their oval framing and tonal layering of rock, foliage and sky for landscape compositions with a vintage cast.
