button to main menu Windermere, A Storm
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Tullie House Museum : 1949.125.26
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©  Tullie House Museum 		image, button to large image
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Painting, watercolour over a lithograph print, Windermere, A Storm, by Ford Madox Brown, about 1855.
Windermere from the head of the lake with Bowness on the far distant shore. In the foreground a scattered herd of cattle lie in a sloping field enclosed by drystone walls on left. Two figures pass across it from right to left. Beyond lies the lake fringed on the nearside with trees; beyond it rise distant hills. A heavy bank of cloud hovers over the horizon.
Brown seldom left his studio to paint outdoors and only painted two pictures on the spot in his career. However, Brown was encouraged to visit the Lake District in 1848 by fellow artist Rossetti, to study the outdoor effects of light. Brown spent six days in the Lake District and was only affected by rain on his last day when he had to sketch under an umbrella. Brown completed a larger version of this view in oils which is now in the Lady Lever Art Gallery; the print was made from that painting. Brown decided to paint over the surface of the print entirely in opaque watercolour to hide its surface. He also decided to add a very fanciful sky and group of trees on the right hand side which are absent in the original painting. Brown captures a moment in time in this picture. Two people are walking across the bright green grassy field filled with cattle, while above, storm clouds are brewing.
On 31st January 1858 the artist recorded in his diary 'coloured at one of my lithographs of Windermere to give John Marshall [an eminent surgeon]'.
wxh, image:- 275x118mm