The Heights at Dovedale, Derbyshire

William Day visited Derbyshire in 1789 when he toured the County with the artist John Webber (1751-1793). Day was a geologist and amateur artist who exhibited regularly at the Royal Academy from 1782 to 1801. Many watercolours survive from Day's 1789 tour.

Dovedale is a section of the river Dove, about three miles long, which is enclosed by a limestone gorge. The rock formations and caves were popular subjects for artists as they not only provided a sense of novelty and intrigue, but also the picturesque. When William Gilpin visited he wrote, ‘From the description given of Dove-dale even by men of taste, we had conceived it to be a scene rather of curiosity than of beauty. We supposed the rocks were formed into the most fantastic shapes; and expected to see a gigantic display of all the comic sections. But we were agreeably deceived. The whole composition is chaste, and picturesquely beautiful, to a high degree.’