William Gilpin, in his Observations on the River Wye, and Several Parts of South Wales, etc. Relative Chiefly to Picturesque Beauty; made in the Summer of the Year 1770, published in 1782, generated considerable interest in the natural and man-made attractions of South Wales and heralded the development of the Wye Tour as an alternative to the Grand Tour.[77] As a consequence, Monnow Bridge and gatehouse became a popular subject for artists.[78] A late 18th-century watercolour by Michael Angelo Rooker is now in the Monmouth Museum.[79] The noted architectural watercolourist Samuel Prout painted the bridge in a study dated "before 1814", now held at the Yale Center for British Art in Connecticut.[80] In 1795, J. M. W. Turner sketched the bridge and gatehouse during one of his annual summer sketching tours.[81]