JAMES BAKER PYNE (BRITISH 1800-1870)
Skiddaw
Signed and dated J B Pyne/1849 numbered 207 lower left
Oil on canvas
82 x 129cm (32 1/2 x 50 3/4in)


Fig.1: Skiddaw (lithograph by W. Gauci) in The English Lake District by James Baker Pyne published by Thomas Agnew & Sons, Manchester, 1853

A great lover of the Lake District, second only to Turner in his recording of the region's natural beauty, Pyne selected the present work to be reproduced as one of 25 large hand-coloured lithographic plates for his book The English Lake District (fig.1). The lavish tome was the outcome of a series of paintings Agnews had commissioned from him in the late 1840s of which the present work is one. Grasmere from Loughrigg of 1848 was the first in the series. Other subjects included The Derwent River and Borrowdale, Bassenthwaite Lake and Coniston Water. The number 207 on the canvas is probably Pyne's own form of numbering of his works.

Originally from Bristol Pyne moved to London in the mid-1830s. He exhibited at the Royal Academy, the British Institution and the Society of British Artists, where he served as Vice-President.