Derwentwater is in the Lake District in Cumbria. The area’s vast and unspoiled landscapes were only beginning to be explored by tourists, artists and poets at the time Hearne made this watercolour.

Hearne, born thirty-one years before Turner, was a member of the older generation of watercolour artists. His work was rooted in the traditions of topography – the careful study of particular places and buildings – but he adapted those conventions to the more ‘romantic’ leanings of modern taste.