Exhibited by Turner with a conflation of verses from 'Spring' from James Thomson's Seasons:
Till in the western sky the downward sun
Looks out effulgent - the rapid radiance
instantaneous strikes
Th'illumin'd mountains - in a yellow mist
Bestriding earth - the grand ethereal bow
Shoots up immense, and every hue unfolds.
This was the first year in which verses were allowed in the R.A. catalogue.

Based on a watercolour in the ‘Tweed and Lakes’ sketchbook (T.B.XXXV-84, repr. Wilkinson 1972, pp.48-9). Wilson's influence is still strong, as is that of P. J. de Loutherbourg in the Lake District subject and the interest in weather effects, but Turner's close dependence on a sketch made by him on the spot has introduced a personal element not to be found in his Wilsonian landscapes of about the same time, Nos.34, 35 and 36.

For John Hopper, primarily a portraitist, but the painter of the dramatic 'A Gale of Wind' exhibited at the R.A. in 1794 (Tate Gallery), this picture and 'Morning amongst the Coniston Fells, Cumberland', also shown by Turner in 1798 (Tate Gallery 461), showed 'a timid man afraid to venture'.