The painter, water-colourist and etcher David Young Cameron studied at both the Glasgow and Edinburgh Schools of Art. He became a leading member of the Scottish etching revival, and his early works are principally devoted to architectural subjects and portraiture. However, after the turn of the century Cameron became increasingly interested in the Scottish landscape. In 1899 he moved to Kippen, a small village near Stirling, where he lived for the rest of his life.

Following a heart attack in 1921 Cameron travelled to the South of France to recuperate and it was here, influenced by the intensity of light, he started to use vibrant colour in his work. This he continued to incorporate into his native landscapes on his return to Scotland. In this soft, autumnal landscape Cameron is able to reveal the spirit of Loch Earn, at a particular time of day, through a simplicity of form, thus allowing colour and light to become the dominant feature of the painting. This characteristic of his paintings may be allied with the fact that Cameron was a skilful water-colourist, an art requiring an economy of line, followed by a successive layering of colour (see RCIN 453575).

A similar work entitled 'Loch Earn' was at Sotheby's, Edinburgh, Assembly Rooms, 23 March 1993 (247) and sold again at Christie's, South Kensington, 10 November 2011 (211); possibly the work exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1932 (166). A watercolour of Loch Earn is in the Art Gallery of New South Wales, no date, (No 7585). This painting was shown at the Royal Academy, Summer Exhibition, 1935 (140, 'The Heart of Perthshire').