Windermere from Troutbeck

Edward Lear (1812-1888)
Windermere from Troutbeck

With cut off inscription lower right and inscribed H lower centre
Pencil heightened with touches of white on grey paper, with cut corners
16.8 by 25.5cm., 6 ½ by 10 in.

This is a view looking north up Windermere from Troutbeck with Belle Isle in the distance. It probably dates from the 19th or 20th October 1836. Lear was at Helvellyn on 15th October and had reached Bowness on the east coast of Windermere by the 20th. A drawing of Windermere from near Windermere, dated 20th October, on a similar sheet of paper is in a private collection (see Charles Nugent, Edward Lear the Landscape Artist - Tours of Ireland and the English Lakes, 1835 &1836, no.85, p.165, ill.). This drawing is taken from near Troutbeck which is several miles north of Bowness so was presumably drawn earlier. Lear carried on down the east coast of Windermere on his way back to Knowsley which he had reached by 30th October.


A view of Windermere from Lowwood by Lear, dated 9th September 1836, was sold at Christie's on 20th November 2003, lot 53 for £8,500