William Gilpin was a watercolourist, vicar and headmaster of Cheam School until 1777. He is notable for being one of the first advocates of the idea of the 'picturesque'.

During the summer months, Gilpin travelled around the country, making watercolours and keeping journals in which he crystallised his personal theories about picturesque landscapes. He believed that, when drawing, an artist ought to look for the view that would most create a suitable image: one which conveyed aspects of the sublime (ruins, mountains etc) and the beautiful (light and shade, trees, pastoral scenes etc). Gilpin advocated that artistic license could be used where necessary, perhaps by adding a bridge where there was one, making ruins more ruinous or by slipping a tree into the background.

This work Observations relative chiefly to picturesque beauty … in Cumberland and Westmoreland, first published in two volumes in 1786 saw Gilpin develop his ideas of the picturesque further than in his earlier Observations on a Tour of the River Wye. In this book Gilpin travelled around the Lakes and recommended, among others, that when drawing mountains, it was best to avoid "unnatural forms" such as parallel lines and continuous lines as well as features such as saddleback mountains (Blencathra) or buttes which incorporated vertical lines and concave or flat peaks.