High force, Fall of the Tees, Yorkshire

This view of natural scenery in the north of England illustrates the conventions of watercolour practice during the Romantic period of the early 19th century, which many later Victorian artists reacted against. A key figure of the Romantic generation, JMW Turner created the image with deftly applied washes, preserving the feeling of translucency, directness and suggestiveness. This technique was ideally suited to capturing fleeting atmospheric effects, such as the rainbow appearing in the spray at the foot of the falls. Like many watercolours at this time, it was not intended as a work of art in its own right but was made for engraved reproduction.