Watercolor over graphite on medium, slightly textured, cream wove paper in contemporary line mount
Dimensions:
Sheet: 13 5/8 × 20 1/8 inches (34.6 × 51.1 cm)
Inscription(s)/Marks/Lettering:
Inscribed in graphite, upper center: "From"; in brown ink, upper center: "Calgarth"; in graphite, upper center: "looking down The Lake No. 30"; in graphite, lower right: "27420 | 123"
Credit Line:
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B1975.3.269
Classification:
Drawings & Watercolors
Collection:
Prints and Drawings
Subject Terms:
landscape | hills | lake | cows | cattle | sunset
Associated Places:
United Kingdom | Cumbria | Lake District | Belle Isle | Windermere | England | Europe
Currently On View:
Not on view
Exhibition History:
Great British Watercolors from the Paul Mellon Collection at the Yale Center for British Art (Yale Center for British Art, 2008-06-09 - 2008-08-17)Great British Watercolors from the Paul Mellon Collection at the Yale Center for British Art (The State Hermitage Museum, 2007-10-23 - 2008-01-13)Great British Watercolors from the Paul Mellon Collection at the Yale Center for British Art (Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 2007-07-11 - 2007-09-30)Fairest Isle - The Appreciation of British Scenery 1750-1850 (Yale Center for British Art, 1989-04-12 - 1989-06-25)
Publications:
Megan Cullen, Fairest isle : the appreciation of British scenery, 1750-1850 : [exhibition] label copy. Yale Center for British Art, April 12-June 25, 1989., , Yale Center for British Art, [New Haven, 1989, p. 18, no. 37, ND1354.4 F351 1989 (YCBA)Duncan Robinson, Fairest isle : the appreciation of British scenery, 1750-1850, , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 1989, p. 7, no. 37, ND1354.4 F35 (YCBA)Yale Center for British Art, Great British watercolors : from the Paul Mellon Collection, Yale University Press, New Haven, 2007, pp. 44-45, no. 16, ND1928 .Y35 2007 (LC)+ Oversize (YCBA)
Gallery Label:
Around 1790 Smith was commissioned by John Christian Curwen to produce a suite of watercolors depicting his family estates in Cumberland. Belle Isle, in the middle of the lake, was one of Curwen’s favorite residences, the elegant little round house there being just discernible on the central island. Smith has painted the landscape as benign and harmonious, an enchanted place where even the cows seem civilized, pausing to admire the spectacular sunset. Gallery label for Great British Watercolors from the Paul Mellon Collection at the Yale Center for British Art (Yale Center for British Art, 2008-06-09 - 2008-08-17)