A View of Derwentwater, towards Borrowdale, a Lake near Keswick in Cumberland

Location

Country: UK
City: London
Place: Government Art Collection

Painter and engraver William Bellers is thought to have enrolled at the University of Oxford in 1734 as ‘illuminator’ (painter) and ‘privilegiatus’ (licensed to work within the university). He later mainly made views of the Lake District in the manner of George Lambert and also painted or etched views in Birmingham, Derbyshire, Hampshire, Sussex and along the English coast. He exhibited over 60 works at the Free Society of Artists (1761-73). The rights to his plates were purchased by Robert Sayer in c.1766 and then by John Boydell in c.1769. Boydell issued a series of eight prints in 1774. Bellers sold prints and drawings by himself and the Old Masters from his home in Poppins Court, off Fleet Street. Nothing is known of him after 1773.
Draughtsman, etcher and line engraver Jean Baptiste Claude Chatelain (real name Phillipe) was a Frenchman, born in London. He fought at Flanders before specialising in landscape and topographical views. He made prints after works by 17th-century painters as well as contemporary artists, and also after his own drawings. Chatelain worked in London for the engraver and printseller John Boydell (1720-1804), for whom he engraved works by Claude and Poussin, and also English views. He produced some 50 views in and around London. Chatelain’s unique style of engraving and etching has led to his plates being described as both ‘lazy’ and as demonstrating ‘masterly wildness’.

Places

England, Lake District, Cumbria

Subjects

topography, landscape C18th, tree, dog, lake, mountain, hill, boy, man, woman, coat of arms

Materials & Techniques

coloured engraving

Artist

William Bellers
Jean Baptiste Claude Chatelain (c.1710 - c.1771)
Simon Francois Ravenet (1706 - 1774)

Title

A View of Derwentwater, towards Borrowdale, a Lake near Keswick in Cumberland

Date

published 17 January 1774

Medium

Coloured engraving

Acquisition

Purchased from Frank T Sabin, May 1964

GAC number

6474