Victorian Watercolours: Lake District & Isle of Wight
This painting is one of a charming collection of watercolours that we have for sale, which feature the landscapes of the Lake District and Isle of Wight, two areas of the UK which saw a boom in tourism in the Victorian era. The collection of small-scale works serves to record this unknown traveller's engagement with landscape in much the way photographs and postcards would do in decades to come. Landscape features and landmarks are diligently noted, such as 'Striding Edge from Helvellyn' and 'Cliffs nr Blackgang, I of W'—the focus of these works very much being the drama and splendour of the natural environment. Only occasionally are we reminded of the Victorian traveller 'behind the lens', with a view 'from Low Wood Inn' at Windermere or 'from Disley Railway Station', further south, in Cheshire.
The Lake District locations tell of the popularity of certain types of landscape in the 19th century. The developing railways brought a growing number of visitors to the lakes and mountains of Cumbria, their sublime slopes mythologised by the Romantic poets. Similarly, the Isle of Wight was popularised as an ideal travel destination by Queen Victoria, who spent childhood holidays on the island. When Queen she made Osborne House her winter home and the island became a fashionable holiday resort, with visitors including Alfred, Lord Tennyson, photographer Julia Margaret Cameron, and Charles Dickens (who wrote much of David Copperfield there), as well as the French painter Berthe Morisot and members of European royalty. A sizeable network of railways was built on the island, notable for its punishing gradients and numerous tunnels. Landscapes once the preserve of the intrepid traveller were increasingly accessible as the 19th century progressed, transforming the landscape both physically and culturally.
