Hawes Water and Wallergill Force

Location

Country: UK
City: London
Place: Department for International Trade, Old Admiralty Building

This view shows Haweswater lake in the valley of Mardale, the Lake District, and a small waterfall nearby known as Wallergill Force. This scenic view was drawn on site in the mid-19th century by James Baker Pyne, lithographed by William Gauci (active 1825-54) and first published by Thomas Agnew and Sons of Manchester in 1853, as part of a set of prints titled ‘The English Lake District’. Pyne’s drawing was later engraved by Thomas Picken and included as an illustration to Pyne’s ‘Lake Scenery of England’, published in 1859. Accompanying text in this publication refers to the view as follows:

‘This small Lake, three miles long by half a mile broad, is seldom visited, whilst the waterfall is almost unknown. There are, however, few finer or more picturesque views in the entire district...’

Pyne also produced an oil painting of ‘Haweswater from Wallergill Force’ (1850; Royal Holloway College, University of London), painted in warm, rich colours, which is described in ‘The Victorian Countryside’ (1981) by G. E. Mingay as demonstrating ‘a Claudian glow, deployed to great effect’.

Landscape painter James Baker Pyne was born in Bristol, where he worked as a self-taught artist until the age of 35. He gave painting lessons to William James Müller, who later became an artist of repute. In 1835 Pyne moved to London, exhibiting his work at the Royal Academy, British Institution and New Watercolour Society over two decades. In his early period he painted views and scenery around Bristol but after 1835 he travelled to Italy and elsewhere on the Continent, gathering material to work up into finished pictures. Pyne was an admirer and imitator of Turner; his dramatic effects and use of pale yellow tones reflecting Turner's influence. Today, his records of works produced from 1840 to 1868 are in the Victoria and Albert Museum.
William Gauci was a lithographer, mainly of landscape views after the designs of his contemporaries. Gauci was based in London and his father, M. Gauci, and brother, Paul Gauci, also worked as lithographers. William collaborated with his brother on the production of several prints. In 1831 ‘Arnold's Magazine of the Fine Arts’ commented: ‘William Gauci is a landscape draughtsman; but his style is monotonous; he has however lately obtained more brilliancy than formerly distinguished his works.’

Places

England, Lake District, Cumbria, Measand Beck, Haweswater, Harter Fell (Mardale)

Subjects

fisherman, topography, landscape C19th, Victorian Genre, lake, mountain, stone/rock, waterfall, man

Materials & Techniques

lithograph, colour lithograph

Artist

James Baker Pyne (1800 - 1870)
William Gauci

Title

Hawes Water and Wallergill Force

Date

published 1853

Medium

Colour lithograph

Acquisition

Purchased from Agnews, November 1960

GAC number

5360