Blea Tarn (framed print)

“There, sometimes does a leaping fish

Send through the tarn a lonely cheer;

The crags repeat the raven’s croak

In symphony austere:

Thither the rainbow comes, the cloud,

And mists that spread the flying shroud,

And sunbeams, and the sounding blast”

[W. Wordsworth – Tarns (1810) in: Prose of Lakeland – B. L. Thompson, p70]

One of the best views of the Langdale Pikes is from the miniature lake called ‘Blea Tarn’ just above Great Langdale. Once described as the ‘cottage of the solitary lonely, on classic ground’ by M. J. B. Baddeley, William has used a very fluid watercolour technique in this ethereal painting, masterly in its precision and economy of handling, with the Pikes forming like an icy cathedral in the background and the reflections in the tarn so reminiscent of Chinese painting, which he greatly admired.

 1. Framed print size approx 610x508mm 24×20″(TTH)

     Image size approx 460x315mm

2. Framed print size approx 483x381mm 19×15″ (SBT)

    Image size approx 323x218mm

3. Framed print size approx 330x279mm 13×11″(NTA)

     Image size approx 182x121mm