Buttermere Lake, with Part of Cromackwater, Cumberland, a Shower

J.M.W. Turner

Oil on canvas

Tate Britain

This magnificent oil painting captures the dramatic beauty of Buttermere Lake in England's Lake District, featuring stormy skies pierced by a luminous rainbow arching over the reflective waters. Created by Joseph Mallord William Turner, who was born above his father's London barber shop and became one of history's greatest landscape painters, this work demonstrates his early mastery of the Romantic Sublime—intended to evoke awe at nature's grandeur. Turner created this piece following his first tour of the Lake District in 1797, working from a sketchbook study where he wrote 'Black' on the water surface to capture the stormy conditions he witnessed firsthand.