Peter de Wint (British, 1784–1849)

This atmospheric panorama with a remarkably extensive uninterrupted vista dates from the 1830s and is a companion to A View of the Cumberland Hills from Patterdale , in the collection of the Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester (D1924.63). Both watercolours are painted with wet, broad washes in the same palette on two sketchbook pages joined together, in the narrow panoramic format favoured by the artist, and are identical in size. They were presumably done on the spot. It seems highly probable that this watercolour is also of the fell region between Keswick and Penrith. De Wint is thought to have drawn these when visiting from the homes of his patrons the Howards of Leben or the Lonsdales of Lowther, with both of whom he stayed.

The Gentleman’s Magazine obituary of the artist stated, His visits to the lakes of Westmerland [sic] and Cumberland produced many valuable sketches and drawings of picturesque scenery of a higher character; and his characteristic diligence in studying nature under all circumstances was never relaxed. ¹

1. September 1849, p. 322, quoted in John Lord, ed., ‘Peter de Wint 1784–1849’, exhibition catalogue, Usher Art Gallery, Lincoln, 2007, p. 145.