The Picturesque, written about by theorists such as William Gilpin, was an aesthetic formula for the ideal landscape based on the pleasing effects of visual variety. It was also a way of giving order to the landscape, making sure everything - including its human inhabitants - was in its proper place. This picture adheres to the formula closely, with its combination of roughly textured rocks, still water, and evocative ruin and storm clouds. Although this has been described as a scene in Cumberland or Wales, it is probably an amalgam of different views the artist had sketched on tours to these places in the 1780s.