Pickman's aesthetic principles of horror resemble those in Lovecraft's essay "Supernatural Horror in Literature" (1925-1927), on which he was working at the time the short story was composed [REF].
The story compares Pickman's work to that of a number of actual artists, including John Henry Fuseli (1741-1825), Gustave Doré (1832-1883), Sidney Sime (1867-1941), Anthony Angarola (1893-1929), Francisco Goya (1746-1828), and Clark Ashton Smith (1893-1961).