Windermere

In the summer of 1786, Towne spent a number of weeks in the Lake District of northern England, filling two large sketchbooks and a portfolio with drawings. This view of Lake Windermere was made, as the artist’s inscription notes, on August 16 around 4:00 p.m. Though he drew the pencil outlines on the spot, Towne typically dismantled his sketchbooks at the end of a journey, joining the pages together and coloring them with watercolor. He altered the right third of this drawing later, as shown by the discontinuation of the pen lines along the top ridge of the mountain and at the lakeshore below (2022).