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Thoreau, Moralist of the Picturesque
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2020
Extract
The vogue of “the Picturesque” in England during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries was considerable. The word “picturesque” came into use in the latter eighteenth century to designate “picturesque beauty.” Although very brief, a fairly good working definition for the purposes of this paper is the one first stated by the Rev. William Gilpin in 1768: “Picturesque: a term expressive of that peculiar kind of beauty, which is agreeable in a picture.” Gilpin before his death was called “the venerable founder and master of the Picturesque School,” and years afterward it was declared:
- in the picturesque, Gilpin is unquestionably an Oracle; and his work is a Grammar of the Rules, by which alone the beauties of the Tour can be properly understood and appreciated.
- Type
- Research Article
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1932
References
1 For treatments of its character, see especially Elizabeth W. Manwaring, Italian Landscape in Eighteenth Century England (New York: Oxf. Univ. Pr., 1925); Christopher Hussey, The Picturesque: Studies in a Point of View (London and New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1927); and my unpublished dissertation in the Harvard University Library, Studies in the Life and Works of William Gilpin.
2 [William Gilpin,] An Essay upon Prints, containing Remarks upon the Principles of picturesque Beauty … (London, 1768), “Explanation of Terms,” p. 2.
3 Monthly Review, N. S., xxviii (April, 1799), 394.
4 Thomas D. Fosbroke, The Wye Tour, third ed. (Ross, 1826), p. 3. The first edition appeared in 1818; cf. the Gentleman's Magazine, lxxxviii, Pt. ii (July, 1818), 43–44.
5 William Gilpin, Observations on the Western Parts of England, relative chiefly to Picturesque Beauty … (London, 1798), p. 328.
6 John G. Macvicar, The Philosophy of the Beautiful (Edinburgh, 1855), p. 61.
7 The Writings of Henry David Thoreau, Walden Ed., 20 vols. (Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1906), xii, 17. This edition is hereinafter referred to as Writings.
8 Ibid., vi, 238.
9 Ibid., vi, 239.
10 Ibid., vi, 263–264, 265. Daniel Ricketson and His Friends …, ed. Anna and Walton Ricketson (Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1902), shows that Ricketson read Gilpin, and was permanently impressed by him (see pp. 48, 223, 243, 262); and it tells in several places of Thoreau's interest in picturesque beauty. Thoreau's interest in sketching and painting is pointed out on pp. 145 and 172–173. His interest specifically in the picturesque clearly reveals itself in two other passages (pp. 287, 296–297), extracts from Ricketson's journal. The first of these is a part of the entry made at “Concord, Mass., Sunday, June 22d, 1856,” while he was visiting Thoreau. After describing Emerson (“with whom I had my second interview last night”) he praises Concord very highly as a dwelling-place. “The scenery,” says he, “is very picturesque in and about the village. … With Thoreau I rowed up the river several miles, and had many pleasant views from different points.” The second passage tells of another visit to Thoreau. On September 21, 1856, Ricketson “walked with him [Thoreau] to Walden Pond and saw the location of the Shanty where he lived alone some two years, bathed and visited the cliff and several other hills to obtain views of the pond and surrounding country, which is very picturesque, the Concord River constantly seen in its meandering course through the neighbouring fields . …”
11 Besides the Scenery-Shower, the following works are worth noting: The New-York Magazine; or, Literary Repository, iv (Dec., 1793), 736–741, which reprint Gilpin's essay “On Picturesque Travel”; [Louis Simond,] Journal of a Tour and Residence in Great Britain, during the years 1810 and 1811, 2 vols. (New York, 1815), i, ix; Caroline Gilman, The Poetry of Travelling in the United States (New York, 1838), p. 94; William Combe, The Tour of Doctor Syntax in Search of the Picturesque (with colored plates after Thomas Rowlandson), first American ed., (Philadelphia, n.d.); a second American ed. (apparently a good many years after the first) (Philadelphia, 1864); another issue, for sale by John Campbell (Philadelphia, 1865); The Home Book of the Picturesque; or American Scenery, Art, and Literature (New York: G. P. Putnam, 1852); a pirated edition of the last, with new cover-design, and the new title Home Authors and Home Artists. And especially note, for praise of Gilpin along with interest in the picturesque, Complete works of Oliver Wendell Holmes, University Ed. 14 vols. (New York: Sully and Kleinteich, n. d. [after 1908]), i, The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table, pp. 231–232; iv, Over the Teacups, pp. 27, 213, 273; x, Our Hundred Days in Europe, p. 61.
12 Boston, 1844.
13 Burton, Scenery-Shower, pp. 1–2.
14 Ibid., pp. 9–13.
15 Journals of Ralph Waldo Emerson, ed. E. W. Emerson and W. E. Forbes, 10 vols. (Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1910), iv, 321.
16 Ibid., v, 33.
17 Complete Works, Centenary Ed., 12 vols. (Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1904), iii, 178.
18 Writings, xii, 17.
19 Complete Works, op. cit., i, 231–232. For other Holmes references, see footnote 11.
20 Writings, vii, 6.
21 Ibid., vii, 11.
22 Ibid., vii, 96.
23 Ibid., vii 142.
24 Ibid., ix, 15–16.
25 Professor Norman Foerster writes: “His layman's interest in æsthetic principles is indicated by his careful reading of William Gilpin on landscape and of Ruskin's Modern Painters.” See “Thoreau as Artist,” The Sewanee Review, xxix, No. 1 (Jan., 1921), 2–13.
26 Writings, ix, 366.
27 The first edition appeared in 2 vols. (London, 1791).
28 Cf. Gilpin, Remarks on Forest Scenery, 3d ed., 2 vols. (London, 1808), i, 199–233. It will not be necessary to give the specific sources for all subsequent quotations by Thoreau from Gilpin; statement of source would not affect the influence of these quotations upon Thoreau, and every source can be readily found: Gilpin's picturesque works have good tables of contents—Forest Scenery is even supplied with an index.
29 Writings, ix, 369.
30 Ibid., ix, 370.
31 Ibid., ix, 380.
32 Ibid., ix, 387.
33 Ibid., ix, 403.
34 Ibid., ix, 407 ff.
35 Ibid., ix, 419.
36 Ibid., ix, 426–427.
37 Ibid., ix, 444.
38 Ibid., ix, 455.
39 Ibid., ix, 483.
40 Ibid., ix, 484.
41 Third ed., 1808, i, 123, 130, 134, etc.
42 Writings, x, 84–88.
43 Ibid., x, 126.
44 Ibid., x, 133–134.
45 Ibid., x, 258.
46 Ibid., x, 445–446.
47 Ibid., x, 283–284. The two works of Gilpin to which this refers are Observations, on several parts of England, particularly the Mountains and Lakes of Cumberland and Westmoreland, relative chiefly to Picturesque Beauty …, 2 vols., London, 1786 (third ed., 1792); and Observations on the River Wye, and several parts of South Wales, &c. relative chiefly to Picturesque Beauty …, London, 1782 (fifth ed., 1800).
48 Observations on several parts of Great Britain, particularly the High-lands of Scotland, relative chiefly to Picturesque Beauty … (London, 1789), in 2 vols. The above quotation appears in the third ed. (1808), i, 124. For the passage see Writings, x, 335.
49 Writings, x, 338–340. Cf. Gilpin's Scotch Tour (third ed.), ii, 4. Thoreau later used this material in Cape Cod.
50 Scotch Tour, third ed., i, 146–147.
51 Writings, x, 394. Cf. Gilpin's Observations on the Western Parts of England, relative chiefly to Picturesque Beauty … (London, 1798), p. 331.
52 Writings, xii, 53. The essay discussed here, and the two which Thoreau discusses immediately afterward, appeared in the volume, Three Essays: On Picturesque Beauty; On Picturesque Travel; and On Sketching Landscape: To which is added a poem, On Landscape Painting, London, 1792 (third ed., 1808).
53 Writings, xii, 55–58.
54 Ibid., xii, 58–59.
55 Harper's New Monthly Magazine, xxxix (Aug., 1869), 337–340.
56 Writings, xi, 337, 377.
57 Ibid., ii (Walden), 276.
58 Ibid., ii (Walden), 317–318.
59 Ibid., iv (Cape Cod), 119.
60 London, 1804, p. 4.
61 One of the best of these pathetically ineffective little sketches is reproduced in the Writings, x (Journal), 14 (entry for May 3, 1852).
62 Uvedale Price, An Essay on the Picturesque, as compared with the Sublime and the Beautiful; etc. (London, 1794).
63 Writings, xii, 103.
64 Ibid., xii, 425.
65 Ibid., xii, 469–470.
66 Ibid., xvii, 296.
67 Ibid., xx, 89.
68 Ibid., xx, 229.
69 Ibid., xx, 303–304.
70 Forest Scenery, third ed., ii, 306–310.
71 Ibid., i, 106–107; and also Gilpin's Three Essays: On picturesque Beauty; … (London, 1792), pp. 46–47.
72 See his Observations on … the High-lands of Scotland, third ed., ii, 33–35; also his Forest Scenery, third ed., i, 107 n.-109 n.