Thorpe Cloud, 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.

Considering how distinctive the hill, Thorpe Cloud is, it is surprising that it features in so few works. An engraving by I. Mason after Thomas Smith of Derby was published in 1766 but aside from this, few representations exist. When John Skinner visited the area in 1803 he sketched the view in his journal, writing ‘we entered the valley at the foot of Thorpe Cloud a pyramidal hill rising with a steep unbroken surface some hundred feet above the vale’ (‘Sketches in Wales, Derbyshire etc.’, British Library MS 33640)