Bowder Stone, Borrowdale

The Bowder Stone in Borrowdale, Cumbria, is one of the Lake District's most celebrated geological curiosities — a massive, precariously balanced boulder estimated to weigh nearly 2,000 tonnes, left by glacial action. It had been a tourist attraction since the late eighteenth century, with Romantic travellers seeking out sublime natural phenomena as alternatives to the classical Grand Tour. Grimshaw's 1865 painting represents his engagement with the Romantic landscape tradition at a relatively early stage of his career, before his nocturnes became dominant. The Lake District had been painted by Constable, Turner, and countless Victorian landscapists, and the Bowder Stone offered a ready-made Sublime spectacle. Tate's holding of this work documents the breadth of Grimshaw's practice beyond his famous urban nocturnes.

Oil on canvas with the naturalistic landscape handling of Grimshaw's earlier career, influenced by the Pre-Raphaelite tradition of close botanical and geological observation. The massive rock is rendered with attention to its surface texture and improbable balance, while the surrounding Borrowdale vegetation is depicted with specificity. The palette is lighter and more varied than his nocturnal work.