Oil paint on canvas
Cumbria
Tate Collection
Works with images
Joseph Mallord William Turner
Turner Bequest
Oil paintings
Collection
Turner owned by Tate
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/joseph-mallord-william-turner-558" aria-label="More by Joseph Mallord William Turner" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Joseph Mallord William Turner</a>
Buttermere Lake with Part Cromackwater Cumberland a Shower
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Buttermere
Crummock Water
Cumbria
England
England, Northern
Fleetwith Pike
Hay Stacks
lake
Lake District
landscape
literature (not Shakespeare)
literature and fiction
mountain
natural phenomena
places
rain
rainbow
storm
Thomson, James, ‘The Seasons’
UK cities, towns and villages
UK counties
UK countries and regions
UK natural features
water: inland
weather
<p>This Lake District scene was shown at the Royal Academy in 1798 along with several other North of England subjects, following Turner’s first tour of the region the previous year. It is based on a sketchbook study (Tate) worked up in watercolour to show the stormy conditions he presumably witnessed, writing ‘Black’ on the surface of the lake. This was his cue for the mood of this dramatic painting, enlivened by the rainbow which would become a frequent motif. Turner is making a consciously ‘Sublime’ statement, intended to evoke the viewer’s awe at the grandeur of Nature.</p><p><em>Gallery label, February 2010</em></p>
painting oil paint canvas
24 June 2002 – 21 May 2007
2007-05-21
24 June 2002 – 1 July 2003
2003-07-01
2002-06-24
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2002-06-24
Turner: Sublime Landscape
Collection based display
19 August 2009 – 27 July 2010
2010-07-27
19 August 2009 – 27 July 2010
2010-07-27
2009-08-19
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2009-08-19
Landscape and Nation: Turner's Britain
Collection based display
4 August 2010 – 9 April 2012
2012-04-09
4 August 2010 – 9 April 2012
2012-04-09
2010-08-04
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2010-08-04
Early Turner
Collection based display
8 February 2013 – 13 April 2014
2014-04-13
8 February 2013 – 19 May 2013
2013-05-19
2013-02-08
Art Gallery of South Australia (Adelaide, Australia)
http://www.artgallery.sa.gov.au
4 June 2013 – 8 September 2013
2013-09-08
2013-06-04
National Gallery of Australia (Canberra, Australia)
8 October 2013 – 18 December 2013
2013-12-18
2013-10-08
Toyko Metropolitan Art Museum (Toyko, Japan)
1 January 2014 – 13 April 2014
2014-04-13
2014-01-01
Kobe City Museum (Kobe, Japan)
2013-02-08
J.M.W. Turner: Makings of a Master
Loan-out
25 May 2019 – 31 August 2020
2020-08-31
26 October 2019 – 5 January 2020
2020-01-05
2019-10-26
Tullie House Museum and Art Gallery Trust (Carlisle, UK)
2019-05-25
Turner - Northern Exposure
Loan-out
16 October 2021 – 14 July 2023
2023-07-14
16 October 2021 – 6 March 2022
2022-03-06
2021-10-16
ARoS Aarhus Kunstmuseum (Aarhus, Denmark)
18 May 2022 – 11 September 2022
2022-09-11
2022-05-18
Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya (Barcelona, Spain)
http://www.mnac.es
8 October 2022 – 5 February 2023
2023-02-05
2022-10-08
National Gallery of Ireland (Dublin, Ireland)
http://www.nationalgallery.ie
3 March 2023 – 25 June 2023
2023-06-25
2023-03-03
Fondation Pierre Gianadda (Martigny, Switzerland)
2021-10-16
Turner Watercolours: Sun is God
Tate partnerships & programmes
Buttermere Lake, with Part of Cromackwater, Cumberland, a Shower
support: 889 × 1194 mm
frame: 1092 × 1400 × 85 mm
Accepted by the nation as part of the <a href="/search?gid=999999781" data-gtm-name="tombstone_link_bequest" data-gtm-destination="list-page--search-results">Turner Bequest</a> 1856
<p>This Lake District scene was shown at the Royal Academy in 1798 along with several other North of England subjects, following Turner’s first tour of the region the previous year. It is based on a sketchbook study (Tate) worked up in watercolour to show the stormy conditions he presumably witnessed, writing ‘Black’ on the surface of the lake. This was his cue for the mood of this dramatic painting, enlivened by the rainbow which would become a frequent motif. Turner is making a consciously ‘Sublime’ statement, intended to evoke the viewer’s awe at the grandeur of Nature.
<br/></p>

Display caption
2010-02-18T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
<p><b>7.</b> [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-buttermere-lake-with-part-of-cromackwater-cumberland-a-shower-n00460" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N00460</span></a>]<b> Buttermere Lake, with part of Cromackwater, Cumberland, a Shower</b> Exh. 1798
<br/>
<br/>THE TATE GALLERY, LONDON (460)
<br/>Canvas, 36 1/8 × 48 (91·5 × 122).</p>
<p><b>Coll.</b> Turner Bequest 1856 (80, ‘Landscape with Rainbow’ 4'0" × 3'0"); transferred to the Tate Gallery 1929.</p>
<p><b>Exh.</b> R.A. 1798 (527); Tate Gallery 1931 (4); Tate Gallery 1959 (343); New York 1966 (1, repr. p. 6); R.A. 1974–5 (30, repr.); Victoria and Albert Museum 1984–5.</p>
<p><b>Lit.</b> Farington <i>Diary</i> 5 January 1798; Thornbury 1862, i, p. 261; 1877, p. 418; Bell 1901, pp. 61, 73 no. 90 (as exh. R.A. 1799); Armstrong 1902, p. 219; Rawlinson and Finberg 1909, pp. 30–31; Finberg 1910, p. 35; Davies 1946, p. 187; Clark 1949, p. 104; Clare 1951, pp. 22–3, repr.; Finberg 1961, pp. 45, 49, 461 no. 47, pl. 6; Rothenstein and Butlin 1964, p. 10. pl. 7; Gowing 1966, p. 7, repr p. 6; Lindsay 1966, p. 36; Gage 1969, pp. 56, 135; Reynolds 1969, p. 36, pl. 23; Gaunt 1971, p. 5, colour pl. 1; Watson 1971, pp. 111–13; Ziff 1971, p. 126; Wilkinson 1972, pp. 47–9, repr. p. 49; Herrmann 1975, pp. 12, 225, colour pl. 10; Heffernan 1978, pp. 143–4; Wilton 1979, p. 56, pl. 35; Wilton 1980, pp. 35–6, pl. vii; Paulson 1982, pp. 67–8, 103, pl. 34; Ziff 1982, pp. 226–8, pl. 1.</p>
<p></p>
<p>First exhibited with the following verses, a conflation of Thomson's ‘Spring’, ll. 189–205:
<br/></p>
<p>‘Till in the western sky the downward sun
<br/>'Looks out effulgent—the rapid radiance instantaneous strikes
<br/>'Th'illumin'd mountains—in a yellow mist
<br/>'Bestriding earth—The grand ethereal bow
<br/>'Shoots up immense, and every hue unfolds.’</p>
<p align="right">Vide Thompson's [<i>sic</i>] Seasons.
<br/></p>
<p>Turner omits many of Thomson's images and more interestingly in view of his later interest in colour-theory, the immediately following lines which refer to Newton and his ‘showery prism’. Gage suggests that the verses, which do not altogether fit the subdued colouring of the picture, and in particular of the rainbow, were an afterthought occasioned by the new permission in 1798 to include quotations in the R.A. catalogue. Ziff on the other hand sees the discrepancy merely as the result of the relatively dark tonality characteristic of Turner's early style: Turner's alteration of the position of the rainbow in the preliminary <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/w/watercolour" title="Glossary definition for 'Watercolour'"><span>watercolour</span></a> in the ‘Tweed and Lakes’ sketchbook (XXXV, p. 84; repr. in colour Wilkinson, <i>op cit.</i>) shows that he had Thomson's text in mind from the beginning. Ziff (1982) suggests that the watercolour was worked up in London over an on-the-spot <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/g/graphite" title="Glossary definition for 'Graphite'"><span>pencil</span></a> <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/d/drawing" title="Glossary definition for 'Drawing'"><span>drawing</span></a> similar to those of Buttermere on pages 27 (repr. pl. 2) and 28 with Thomson's verses in mind, and that Turner was probably also influenced by William Gilpin's <i>Observations Relative Chiefly to <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/picturesque" title="Glossary definition for 'Picturesque'"><span>Picturesque</span></a> Beauty ... Mountains and Lakes of Cumberland and Westmoreland</i>, 1786, which quotes the same lines. In the oil Turner added the reflection of the rainbow in the lake.
<br/>
<br/>Other features added in the oil are the little rowing boat and foreground branches, though the boat with its two passengers does appear in another watercolour from the same sketchbook (XXXV, p. 87; repr. in colour Wilkinson, <i>op. cit.</i>, pp. 46–7). In addition Turner strengthened the feeling of volume enfolding the rainbow by making the distant hills less ethereal.
<br/>
<br/>For Hoppner's judgement, recorded by Farington, and two favourable reviews, see No.5 [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-morning-amongst-the-coniston-fells-cumberland-n00461" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N00461</span></a>].</p>
<p>
<br/><b>Published in:</b>
<br/>Martin Butlin and Evelyn Joll, <i>The Paintings of J.M.W. Turner</i>, revised ed., New Haven and London 1984
<br/></p>

Catalogue entry
2004-09-22T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
Buttermere Crummock Water Cumbria England England, Northern Fleetwith Pike Hay Stacks lake Lake District landscape literature and fiction literature (not Shakespeare) mountain natural phenomena places rain rainbow storm Thomson, James, ‘The Seasons’ UK cities, towns and villages UK counties UK countries and regions UK natural features water: inland weather