F. Devis Lower Grindelwald Glacier, Switzerland

Swiss Lakes & the Danube: Watercolours 1855–1869

This picture is one of an atmospheric collection of watercolours that we have for sale depicting the landscapes of the Swiss Lakes and Austrian Danube between 1855 and 1869. The artist, F. Devis, of unknown identity, was clearly working in the footsteps of 19th-century artists for whom these romantic landscapes—of awe-inspiring mountains and pristine waters—were a draw. The vistas are wide, horizons are expansive and diminutive towns nestle at the water's edge, affording a sense of the majestic scale of nature. Our artist observes views at different times of day and varying weather, capturing the effects of transient cloud cover and fading light on the mountain tops.

Switzerland in particular was a place of pilgrimage for poets and painters from all over Europe throughout the late 18th and early 19th centuries, with Lord Byron declaring it ‘the most Romantic region in the world’. Our traveller sketches from the vantage points of hotel terraces and lakeside lodgings, which provided the opportunity to paint the convergence of water, gorge, castle and bridge. Not least amongst these lodgings was the Hotel Byron itself, at Villeneuve on Lake Geneva, which opened in 1841, in reference to Byron's pivotal stay on the Lake with Percy and Mary Shelley, where the beginnings of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein were penned. For our artist, and other similar tourists, a stay at Hotel Byron meant not only witnessing the same views as their great Romantic contemporaries, but also somehow sharing in their story.

Views in Switzerland include the Lakes of Lucerne and Geneva, Mount Pilatus and the Giessbach Falls; views in Austria include the Castles of Greinburg and Persenbeug on the Danube, Lake Wolfgang and the Bridge of Linz amongst others.